Diffusion of Responsability
by EROVYT
Summary: Getting sent back in time could have its benefits, it gives me plenty of time to plot against Star. I wanted to kill her there and then, but I had to get stronger considering my videogame power has been reset; starting on a harder difficulty doesn't help either. I didn't mind waiting, despite my urges telling me otherwise. After all, I can always kill her later. (Gamer/Evil Marco)
1. Prologue Part 1: Dark Liberation

_In the future. Marco POV._

**System: [Wish] skill has been successful! The item, Everchanging-hedron of the Superego, has been returned to your inventory! Due to the extraction, [Gamer's Body] is now disabled until the Everchanging-hedron of the Superego is returned! Abnormal physical conditions are no longer negated!**

I dismissed the screen after finishing my complicated and homicidal activity. For once my thoughts are clear, no longer weighted by the effort to show improvement of myself to a blonde princess, no longer I am burdened with the knowledge of the unattainable chance of changing my views in the public's scornful eyes, and no longer do I care of the consequences.

"It's good to be back." I walked out of my cell, the dozens of chains restaining my form, linking to cuffs on my wrists, ankles, and my neck had shattered away and fallen at my feet. This barren hallway leading to the dungeon had been long empty as only two at most were sent to keep watch on me - not to observe me and my nonexistent escape attempts, but to prevent others from committing retaliation of my past sins.

It didn't prevent the guards from taking bribes to go against their job.

"[Regeneration]." I said, activating my skill as my Hp regenerated, my injuries healed and my bruises faded. Although my hands were already broken from the knights guarding my cell, sneaking in to beat me up after a very insulting verbal bout. I welcomed the brutality, giving me a sense of petty satisfaction of winning a bet between friends, and in the duo's passion to deliver a sense of justice, they stupidly left the door to my cell open.

While [Gamer's Body] did grant me the godly boon of keeping my body whole and intact, preventing harmful effects of items, and converting any damage into a reduction of my HP; having it removed along with all the _good _within myself was more than worth it, despite the [Wish] skill using its ever-present dramatic irony to remove [Gamer's Body].

To describe myself accurately, to say I am now who I was before I befriended Star. The essence of any morality existing within me, I had removed was along with [Gamer's Body]. It was the only way to kill him: the split-personality who was nothing more than a fake - a very powerful fake, keeping me suppressed due to his strong resolve, birthed by Star's magic in hopes of granting me good-natured personality with a solid conscious, and maintained by his hopes to win the heart of his crush as he retains all of my memories.

No one could tell I was still around, how I was wronged and became a prisoner of my own body. Seeing what he can see. Hearing his thoughts. Feeling every physical and verbal pain delivered by the people of Star's kingdom.

He should have done something, remind them of who they were dealing with.

But my split-personality is such a coward.

True to it all, he lived up to the facade of the 'Safe Kid' persona I had back on Earth. Except it wasn't fake. He was always afraid of _something _going wrong. With fear, hesitation followed soon. With hesitation manipulating his confidence, events occurred as if he was never there, despite otherwise.

Never acting out. Never doing anything noteworthy. Just forcing a smile, taking it all in while lying that the harsh treatment didn't affect him.

It did.

It would have been better if Star took the opportunity to kill me before the split, it would have changed nothing except saving him the heartache. The only comfort I had while being trapped in my own head, was the ironic technicality for being spared the consequences for the long list of my sins. My split-personality had received all the backlash and pain in my place.

But true to human nature, the variety has to be a must; entertainment gets so boring after watching the same thing happening over and over.

It took me screaming and clawing within the back of his psyche to wear him down, and all of the negative emotions simply eroded his defenses. Which is why on the worst day of his life, today, discovering from the knights who guarded the cell that he had been purposely abandoned in the castle as Star fled with her mother from Toffee's wrath, and stealing a locked safe containing something indescribably precious to him - but originally made by me - is when I earned my liberation.

Watching my broken hands slowly mend back together, accelerating the process with [Heal], I realized when I regained control over my body, I should have verbally provoked the guards to enter my cell _before _I cast [Wish] instead of after; my injuries wouldn't have been so severe.

**System: Due to your hindsight, your WIS has increased by 1!**

Similar pop-ups have appeared as I thought about the unseen outcome of my life. [Gamer's Mind] should have prevented me from developing a split-personality that buried me in the dark depths of my own mind, extracting all the essence that made me good to create him with Star's volatile magic, and making me lose control over my body.

It should have, as it has prevented much worse.

I had a long time to think about that as I watched the fake me secretly fawn over Star. Feeling disgusted as he used the skills I created and evolved for her own wants and reasons.

She is the reason why [Gamer's Mind] had failed to protect me - specifically her family's wand, the most powerful object in the universe.

My power is amazing and outright powerful, but it does not have an infinite source of magic like the wand.

With something like that, and combined with a powerful imagination like Star's, anything can be overcome. Like the hypocrite I am, magic is a threat and a boon to me.

Just like Star.

Her magic can bypass my mental - and it is right to conclude to include my physical - defenses like a bullet ripping through the heart of a kid.

No… a bullet doesn't feel right with me, just like when I verbally provoked the guards to enter, and dealing with them with such a quick death only filled me with disgust.

Although I used fire, it was too fast; they should have died slow.

But Star will die slower. Those pretty blue eyes of hers shall dim as the hypnotic flame of life is extinguished. Her wonderful hair will be soaked with her own filth and blood. Her lovely face shall become mesmerizing in the infinite beauty of death.

And if things go well, she will watch her whole world will die too.

For now, nothing more than a hopeful dream, and reality can be a cruel reminder of how I am merely daydreaming after I freed myself. It got off to a poor start, only burning two guards alive with [Incinerate] is not how I vision my grand escape - but most of the knights left the caste under the King's orders to fight and protect the common people.

The smell of their flesh was so appetizing after I roasted them in their armor. As much as I hate to admit it, I've been having those special cravings for Mewman flesh again. Eating the royal food here becomes boring after a while - didn't help the chefs would eat bits of my food, spitting with thick mucus and rancor onto whatever they didn't touch.

**System: Quest "Playing Possum" is completed; you've escaped imprisonment and execution in Butterfly Caste while keeping up the believable appearance of being vulnerable and weak! A bag containing 100 dice has been placed in your inventory!**

My split-personality received this quest when I planned retribution. He had been so confused as he read the details, and angry that it was accepted without his consent; I made the decision before he could.

And he just ignored the quest, letting it be forgotten and buried under the list of tasks Star gave him to help Mewni. After all, it wasn't his desire that generated the quest - it was mine. Patience is one of the few redeeming qualities a person can have.

I dismissed the screen with a thought, wiping away the blood and Mewman grease staining my dry lips. Blood made a great substitute for dehydration. Peel the fabric off their melted skin took a while, but I was in no rush - stress only causes indigestion.

**System: Meal has been eaten! HP has been restored! Satiation has been restored! [Voracious Growth] has been activated! By consuming an expertly-trained knight, STR and DEX has increased by 3!**

I took out the bag of dice before spilling them onto the ground as I walked away from my finished meal.

These are no ordinary dice. They are a different form of reward when leveling up. Whatever number they land on, I can either use it to increase my stats or the level of my skills. Such a powerful tool of temptation I used to lure others into my sick games.

The gentle clattering of those dark, mystical cubes shimmering and rolling always made my spine tingle. Each one blinking with indication of landing on a single number before they all melted, and moved towards me to be absorbed.

**System: A total of 245 pips have been generated! Allocate them as you will.**

"Put 200 of them into [Regeneration]," I said as I ascended the stairs leading out of the dungeon. "And the rest into [Heal]."

**System: Leveling condition has been met; [Regeneration] has evolved into [Hyper-Reconstitution]! Leveling condition has been met; [Hyper-Reconstitution] has evolved into [Hydra Rejuvenescence]!**

**System: 45 levels have been added to [Heal]! Heal is now level 99!**

I've always regretted getting that [Heal] skill, and I regret even more getting [Cure]. I find it so damn frustrating and demanding of people to heal them. Being smart in a fight always made sure I only need a passive increase of HP regeneration to survive, and [Gamer's Body] would have converted the most severe diseases into tolerable status effects.

But I got those skills for her - I got them to save her!

If I knew opening up and placing trust in someone else other than me would have consequences this annoying and severe, I would have let her die from her illness she genetically inherited from her ancestors. I would have just watched as she withered away as she became a crying mess of pale skin, a thin and frail body, and a fear of death. I've seen fear in people's eyes, but none as mesmerizing like hers.

I want to see the same thing other people, and I am in a good place to start.

The castle is mostly void of royal presence. River had left to fight with his barbaric heritage to defend against the Monsters raiding and burning everything down in their path. Toffee was a wonderful partner, but like any good deals, they are severed when one no longer has any use for the other. We both got what we wanted.

I wanted the Magical High Commission gone, he didn't want the Mewmans ruling Mewni anymore.

He really should have worded that request better.

It was hard to maintain any contact at first, but I always find a way. While Star thinks that her Marco is an insomniac, I simply take over while he's sleeping and use my various skills to send the septarian a message.

It is time to fulfill my end of the bargain.

It was easy to bypass any mental defenses my other personality had, especially when they were weakened when he found out he was never going home from overhearing the heated argument between Star and her mother. The promise of how after he redeems himself, he will be allowed to live his life back on Earth with visitation rights to see a certain blonde princess anytime he wants for adventures and Friendship Thursdays, had been nothing more than a clever snare to keep him trapped - like a fish stupid enough to bite down on a baited hook.

Yet there is always one fish with enough determination to snap the hook from its line. The wounds will surely remain, but it only serves as a reminder to never make the same mistake.

I did when I gave into my melting resolve, self-doubt spawning when I became friends with Star. She always had a wonderful smile on her face and always knew what to say to cheer me up. I was unaware I could even feel that.

But now I know better; I will not make the same mistake.

**System: Quest "Old Urges" has been received! Although you've tried redemption at the request of Star Butterfly, and while she granted protection in her home to help you do so, the other residents of Mewni did NOT take this news with kindness. It is time to replace their scorn with fear by reminding them of your old habits.**

**Objective: Cause as much death and destruction as possible as you seek out Star Butterfly.**

"**Shut Up and Bleed"; 1 dice for every 20 pints of Mewman blood spilled.**

"**Let it Burn"; 3 dice per 1000 gold worth of destroyed property via flames.**

"**Without a Kingdom"; 5 dice for every non-royal citizen of Mewni killed.**

"**Underpaid and Nameless"; 7 dice for each employee killed working in the castle.**

"**Exaggerated Prowess"; 10 dice for each knight slain.**

"**Empty Authority"; 20 dice for wiping out a village's population under the jurisdiction of the Butterflies.**

"**Fulfilling a Promise"; 1000 dice for killing Star Butterfly; addition dice can be earned for inflicting sadistic actions.**

**[Accept/Deny]?**

If I deny this quest, I will leave the peace as it is. Each person with their own lives, all the things they've accomplished, and all the dreams they aspire to make true, can continue in the potential future.

Each one using the finite time they have in the world of the living to make their significant other happy. That extra effort of a parent's unconditional, warm love for their children - to grow up and shape the path of their lives with passion and effort.

Then there are the small things in life that make it worth enduring.

The satisfaction of making a loved one happy.

The bliss of doing passionate activities.

The nostalgia of memories.

The taste of a home-cooked meal.

A warm embrace.

But if I accept this quest, I will end all of it - and I can get another reward besides satisfaction when I kill Star.

It took me less than five seconds to make a decision.

**System: Quest has been accepted!**

A scream reached my ears - strange, I don't remember killing anyone yet. Or maybe I did and hadn't paid the act any mind when I finally exited the dungeons and walked around the castle. I looked down the hallway, seeing one of the servants yell, "Help!", in her shrill voice, dropping whatever onto the polished floor as she is alerting the entire castle saying as she ran, "He escaped! Marco is out of his cell!"

I let out a sigh. "_Have faith in me_, she said…" I grumbled, mocking Star's voice. "_My best friend shouldn't need to feel on-guard in my home..._" Then again, true to her word, I never had a need to keep my other sensory skills active when I was here. Despite the verbal beatings and unsanitary inconveniences, my life was never in danger.

Until now. "Equip armor set," I commanded as [Sense Danger] and [Detect Bloodlust] notified me of the approaching hostiles.

**System: Which armor set would you like to equip?**

"Panoply of the Fanatic." I see Lady Whosits leading the charge.

**System: 'Panoply of the Fanatic' has been selected! Book of Holiness, Holy Stake(x3), Fortifying Garlic, Glittering Spaulder(x2), Holy Orders, and Martyr Seals(x3), Collector's Cloak, has been equipped!**

A full-body yellow cloak draped over my form as a Cleric's tome of holy power was suddenly chained by its spine to the left of my hip while I felt the weight of the spaulders on my shoulders. Thick cloves of garlic hung down from me as if I were wearing it as a tie. Lengths of silver papyrus inscribed with strict orders of a Paladin's faithful ideology had hung down to my knees like a loose scarf, with three red seals made from the blood of martyrs are attached on it. The same number of wooden stakes strapped to my right arm.

**System: Item synergy with the Book of Holiness, Holy Stake, Fortifying Garlic, Glittering Spaulders, Holy Orders, and Martyr Seals grant the physical effect 'Righteous Fury'! **

**System: Item synergy with the Book of Holiness, Holy Stake, Fortifying Garlic, Glittering Spaulders, Holy Orders, and Martyr Seals grant the psychological effect 'Absence of Nuanced Understanding'! This has been negated by [Gamer's Mind]!**

The trampling of armed knights had stopped quite a fair distance away from me. One of them possessed a trait of loyalty to the matriarchy - who protested and insisted that she should stay to watch over me while River sends the majority of the kingdom's knights to defend the land from monsters.

**Lady Whosits**

**Level 230 **

**Species: Mewman **

**Title: Rally to All **

Lady Whosits is built like a bear, with arms thick as a tree, capable of breaking a person in two. She nearly did during my more reckless days of terrorizing Mewni. "You should be in your cell, Dias!" She shouted across the hallway. "A monster like you doesn't deserve to walk free!"

"That only applies if I ever had the privilege of doing so," I quipped, much her irritation. "It is _so _hard getting exercise when you've been chained down."

"Chained with privileges." She reminded. "Being pardoned for all of your previous crimes against Mewni had been a waste on a freak like you!"

I smiled. "...Are you here to kill me?" I felt my old sense of humor surface, excitement growing at the possibility. "If only Star had the same resolution as you all do. I wonder how she'll react when she sees my corpse?"

"The Princess may be your friend," She drew out her sword, unnaturally big to fit her gigantic frame. "But we work under the Queen! And she gave us specific orders not to hold back! So don't think you can hide behind the Princess as a shield anymore!" Then her aggravation had shifted to my lower body. "Levitation?" Lady Whosits scoffed with amusement. "It'll take more than simple tricks to get past the knights of Mewni!"

"Who said this is levitation?" I felt my skin on my face wither and crumble.

"Why else would your feet be absent?" She said in a patronizing tone. "Are you trying to scare us using a large cloak as you float…?"

The assumptions died out as my various bones, heaps of skin and organs, started falling out and piling under me. Despite my eyes melting out of my sockets, I can see the disturbance on their faces just fine.

**System: Collector's Cloak has created the physical effect of 'Horder's Biology'!**

Oh and it hurts. Without [Gamer's Body] to numb the pain and negate the abominable effects, Hoarder's Biology hurts so bad, yet I found the extreme reduction of my maximum HP appropriate considering the status effect from the Collector's Cloak had severed and reduced my biology to nothing more than a skull and a pair of decayed hands.

But I find it welcoming considering what I am about to do next.

**System: Collector's Cloak has created the psychological effect of 'Cranium Obsession'! This has been partially negated by [Gamer's Mind]!**

My attention was now focused on more lesser matters as I wore this yellow cloak, gazing upon their heads. Not enough for me to obsess over, but gaining my interest as a task I am being whispered to obey; a craving building up after being denied of such pleasurable activities. _Rip their heads off_, it told me, _make sure the spines are still attached_.

The knights seemed to shake off their startled state, muscle memory and loyalty to the crown blended with the intense training of years for battle and servitude. They all stood in front of me, a heartbeat later Lady Whosits roared and charged, everyone else conforming with their weapons raised.

I found it so rude, but I know better; chivalry is a privilege, not a right.

Outnumbered against armed and armored enemies, yet I don't hold any resentment, and if I did, it became forgettable. I too felt the same need to use any unfair advantage to finish this quickly.

**System: Title 'Safe Kid' has been replaced with 'Expert Mewman Slayer'!**

**Title: Expert Mewman Slayer; All damage against Mewmans is increased by 80%. All defenses against Mewmans is increased by 80%. Movement speed against Mewmans is increased by 80%.**

True, speed is a factor. But in more cases than none, there are many factors influencing the decision of who has the advantage over who.

Lady Whosits and the knights had to charge across this _long _hallway.

I just had to go _up_.

"[Fly]." A faint glow engulfed my form. I fluidly soared above just when she was about to stab me with her sword. Her eyes and those under her command followed me as I continued to quickly fly over them in a blur.

In any reckless charge of armed individuals, there is always one person who is behind. A single individual who is far enough from the danger, content letting their comrades take the brunt of the threat they're facing as they have increased odds of surviving the encounter, and stayed close enough to not be accused of having a lack of participation.

I know this because I used to do the same thing, and reacted with the same surprise as I dived after singling out the knight at the very back.

With one hand on his shoulder, the other gripping his throat, and with the effect of Righteous Fury and my title boosting my overall prowess, it didn't take much to separate the knight's head from his body as I flew back up.

"No!" One of the other knights shouted as I held his deceased comrade's head, blood spewing from the body like a fountain - it's a shame I couldn't get the spine attached with it. But there are plenty of opportunities to try again. I'm looking at them. "You monster!"

Yet he is the only one saying that the rest are frightened at my swift brutality.

I stuffed the head in my cloak. I felt the decay accelerate as the rotting flesh stretched and fused with the inner lining of my cloak.

**System: Collection stored! 5% increase of max HP!**

17 more to go before I regain what I lost with Hoarder's Biology.

Lady Whosits threw her large weapon at me; I barely had enough room to dodge as I found myself backed into the uppermost corner of the ceiling.

"He's cornered in the air!" She shouted, rallying the others out of their frightened state. "Aim and take him down!"

For a moment, nothing happened. To throw the only weapon they have, and possibly losing it, birthed hesitation until one of them hurled a halberd that would have tore my arm off if it hadn't hit one of my spaulders - the damage was reduced, and the amount of force from the impact had been minimized to a point of being forgotten due to the effect of my spaulders, but it didn't take long for their moral to soar high like the weapons they threw.

Lady Whosits wasn't wrong when she said my movements are limited.

Once again, speed is a factor, but not the only one.

Lady Whosits and her army had to throw their sharp weapons at me as I hover.

I just had to strafe a little to the side to avoid a chained mace from shattering my skull.

It didn't matter how powerful and extreme the knight's training was, no one is that fast, or skilled enough to predict the simple movements of an enemy who can easily see the projectile coming from far away.

But strength does play a role in this scenario.

Cracks formed from the sharp and heavy impact, leaving the weapons embedded up to their hilts into the ceiling.

"Diaz, you coward!" Lady Whosits screamed at me, frustration lacing her strong voice. Perhaps desperation too, since the only thing left to throw at me was a shield. "Get down here and fight!"

I scoffed at the demand. "And give up a powerful advantage?" I removed one of the swords from the ceiling, using [Hex] on the weapon before tossing it down at the large female knight. "How about you try again? Don't worry, I won't move."

And neither will she.

She caught by the blade with ease, not even cutting herself due to years of hardened training and weapon exercising. "You call that a throw?" She flipped the weapon before grabbing it by its grip. "It'll take more than that to-!"

[Hex] took its effect. A curse I tainted the weapon with contact-activation condition to paralyze Lady Whosits. It amazes me to see her constant, reinvigorating moral while she is leading the knights, yet that same confidence is what lead her to fall in an unforeseen condition.

As she convulsed while the black marks of the curse crept up her arms, the fright of her fellow knights, of the seemingly-indestructible Whosits brought down to her knees with minimal effort, bloomed within like a flower, and it spread like pollen in the wind.

"L-Lady Whosits...?" One of the knights reached out with concern.

"DON'T!" She yelled, her voice straining against the curse. "We don't know it spreads - just kill Diaz, we can't let him free! Remember your training and…!"

Even the best intentions have a terrible consequence. While she is trying to boost morale once more, I took advantage of their lack of focus on me. "[Conjure Storm]."

**[Conjure Storm] (Active) Level 43 Cost: 15000 MP per Second**

**This skill allows you to cause a powerful lightning storm to originate from you. A powerful lightning strike will shoot down at intervals while raining heavily.**

**Maximum Radius of Storm: 430 feet.**

**Intervals Between Lightning Strikes: 100 seconds.**

**Reduced the cost of all lightning, wind, and water abilities by 43%.**

Prioritizing MP regeneration benefits in the long run. The crackling boom of thunder with the rush of moisture and howling wind interrupted her speech, they looked at me with startled looks mixed with dread and fear when facing sheer power.

I used to feel the same thing.

As the dark clouds spiraled and spread, I willed the Book of Holiness strapped on my left hip to open; pages containing various spells and rituals rapidly turning until it landed on a specific one. I pressed my left hand on the symbols as I extended my right. "[Create Water]."

I started to count.

A waterfall surged out of my extended hand. The rain from the storm changed their descending paths to gather to me, easing the cost of the skill. The knights panicked and yelled, some tried to stand, the rest had fallen in the liquid surge.

I stopped the skill when my counting neared a triple-digit number. As some struggled to cough out the water in their lungs, and a few didn't have the strength to stand, the merciless wind of the storm chilled them while soaked, they are on the edge of my next act.

Lady Whosits coughed as she lay prone on her chest, her throat burning from holding her stubborn breath for an impressive amount of time. Still gripping the cursed sword in a vice, unable to let go, savoring each intake of air is the only physical action she can do. "...Like I said before," She said in a hoarse voice. "It'll take more than simple tricks to get past the knights of Mewni!"

"_Simple_ doesn't mean _ineffective_," I said as electricity wormed in and out of the churning clouds above. "Metal and water; the deadliest combination of conducting electricity."

A hundred seconds have passed.

Lightning had struck. Had it smite a knight wearing wet metal or crashed down into the large puddle of liquid below, no one could see it.

I saw everyone convulsed as electricity fried their bodies, and after the joyous sight of the qualitative execution, I deactivated [Conjure Storm] while I lowered myself above the water as the knights collapsed and were still like a frozen child in a meat locker.

They never got up.

**System: 23 knights have been slain! 230 dice have been placed into your inventory! 10000 Experience has been gained per killed knight!**

Before the height of my success, I used to think that the knights were fearsome and unstoppable. I couldn't see their levels with [Observe], they always had a weapon while in a full set of armor and were more than eager to protect the royal family and butcher everyone on command.

I lost all fear of them after I read Star's family history.

Their predecessors were acknowledged as the Master Race. They didn't receive any training to wield a weapon or the remember the precious miracle of life, and it only made them better at what they do. After a powerful spell from Star's ancestor, they ceased to be the dirty peasants starving for food and a new life and ascended into the personification of mass-destruction.

The knights I faced now are beyond disappointing. They were nothing but insects compared to the height of their predecessors. Weak and welding armaments of lower quality. And while they do have proper training and a rigid code, it only limits their destructive potential for they must work together when solving a problem that involves violence. Not because it shows the minimal mutual respect and complete faith in one another, but simply because they _need _to.

And it wasn't enough when facing me.

Such is the curse of comfort; it breeds weakness. I wonder how many experiences I would get if I killed the knights at the beginning of Mewni's colonization?

And the amount of destruction I could unleash if I could resurrect them?

* * *

I started removing their heads one by one with care and surgical effort, none of them had their spines attached to the base of their skulls.

Such a shame, such a waste.

Yet after counting the 23rd head fusing inside my cloak, I see I've made a terrible assumption. I never killed all of them - Lady Whosits is still alive.

As I floated over to her, her face down into the puddle, her skin now darker and partially cooked, she could barely focus on me before I bent down, took one of the Holy Stakes on my arm, and stabbed it into her neck.

Her mouth opened with a silent scream, her strong face contorting into agony, but not from the sharp wood. The divine effect of the item literally burning any taint and corruption made her last moments agonizing as smoke coiled off the curse marks slowly crumbling away.

Only when the spark of life in her brown eyes had finally winked into oblivion is when I returned the Holy Stake with the other two on my arm. The gaping hole in her neck oozed out the crimson miracle of life as it pooled around her, becoming diluted in this grand puddle of slaughter.

**System: A knight has been slain! 10 dice have been added into your inventory! Another 20 pints of blood have been spilled! 1 dice has been added to your inventory!**

The noise we caused will definitely attract attention. Either it is from the castle, or entering it from outside, there will be more obstacles to face.

I, however, cannot tolerate possible distractions. With her body so large, and removing the purified sword from her death grip, hacking away any unnecessary flesh and bone requires little effort to create success.

I held her bloody spine as her head is attached to the top. "[Collect Call]."

**[Collect Call] (Active) Level MAX Cost: 10000 MP**

**The Collector has a disturbing hobby with gathering heads, and an even greater obsession of taking them from corpses, or from the living. The lesser, damaged prizes are joined with the rest under the cloak, but those of higher quality are summoned for protection.**

**Summon a being as an undead with their remains.**

**The undead will have the skills as they did in life.**

**The undead's overall strength depends on the person being reanimated, the level of this skill, and INT.**

**Requires the head of the person you want to reanimate with their spines still attached to their heads.**

All the heads inside of me inflated and stretched out any openings of my cloak, their eyes flared with magic, channeling necrotic energies into the prize in my hand before deflating back within me a moment later.

The dead eyes of Lady Whosits' head flared with a magic blue. I let my arms fall to my side as her decayed head floated in the air, her spine wiggled like an abandoned newborn as thousands of magic threads expanded from it. Twisted and expanding. Bloating and shaping. Folding and melting.

I saw an ethereal body of Lady Whosits take form, the only part of her not transparent is her decayed head and spine.

**Lady Whosits**

**Level 400**

**Species: Undead**

**Title: Collected Knight**

She is now stronger than she ever was in life. With my skill fueling and boosting her power, blessed with retaining her skills, unable to feel pain or exhaustion, mixed to create the most delicate birth of a pawn.

I used to consider myself to be one.

I paid it no mind, nor did I strive to change it.

With enough hard work, even the simple pawn can kill the mighty Queen.

And her daughter too.

"You were right about one thing," I said to the Collected Knight. "Star's influence in power no longer benefits me - but you and your fellow knights can." I raised a hand at the littered corpses, a dark aura seeping out. "[Animate Dead]."

One by one they had risen back from the peaceful slumber of death, no longer shackled by morals, breaking the chained restraints of empathy and mercy, these pawns will become more!

It's only natural to give the pawn a special role once they've reached the end of the chessboard.

Arming them with weaponry was not a problem - recycling is a beautiful act when one knows where to look.

I looked at the ceiling.

After retrieving their weapons, arming the undead horde as I used [Hex] to taint the weapons to spread their curses on hit, I had my fingers traced across the inscribed, strict orders written in black ink on the lengthy silver papyrus hanging down to my knees like a loose scarf; the Holy Orders. The words glowed as they gathered in my hand as hard light, I held it out in front of the reanimated knights before giving it a potent exhale.

Floating towards the undead like pollen in the wind, unraveling and slinking across any physical, decaying surface before they tattooed themselves all across their bodies. If they had a head like Lady Whosits, then their eyes would have glowed with more divine power like her.

**System: Holy Orders has been activated! Complicated commands can be used on the target!**

"Block the entrances and exits to the castle," I ordered. "If anyone enters or leaves, cripple them - I'm going to kill them myself."

* * *

I stalked through the halls of the castle. Without a pulsing heart to disrupt my composure, or legs stepping on the polished marble floor to give away my location, I took my leisure to take notice of the most flammable areas to burn.

I can easily use [Alchemize] to brew a tool for fire.

Body fat is the preeminent ingredients, add it together with oily skin from terror-ridden people, blend it into a chunky mass before applying it on the valuables in the castle.

It won't be enough to collapse the castle - it is made through magical means, resisting the erosion of time, never requiring attention for maintenance and restoration. Despite having skills in combustion, I still made the effort to gather more oily, fatty flesh from the people still in the castle.

It had been _so _pleasing to do. It was like an indescribable combination of a birthday party and Christmas morning.

Like Christmas, there were presents. Like tradition, it had been hidden, and couldn't be opened until the right day.

My liberation is that day.

Today.

And like my birthday; everyone tries to make it fun for me.

I think they did.

The number of gifts varied in each room - some were empty as they moved to escape being opened by me - I couldn't blame them. I was always too excited when opening the wrapping paper of those gifts.

The breathing, fear-ridden, blood-filled gifts.

I never liked using tools to open them unless it was necessary. The excitement and unknown creating suspense and anticipation multiplied by imaginative desires grew much bigger when I used my bare hands!

"P-Please don't kill me…!" The head chef of the castle pleaded as she crawled away, leaving a wide streak of blood in her wake. "Please, I have a family!"

"Then you shouldn't have spat in my eggs." I didn't really care - honestly, I was just looking for an excuse. A petty one to make her realize minor antagonistic acts can have major consequences.

A shame she will never be able to apply this new-found wisdom.

"No, please! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have-!"

I pulled her up by her hair, and my other hand gripped her jaw. "Just shut up and _bleed_, you motherfu...!"

Her shrieks deafened my words as I ripped her jaw off, her cheeks tore, and her body shook as it felt like peeling rough bark from a splintered tree. Such a terrible quality of wrapping paper. But the crimson contents within were enough to make me happy.

**System: You have killed one of the staff working in the castle! 7 dice has been added into your inventory!**

The kitchen has never been dirtier.

The celebrating and gift-opening didn't stop as the castle became void of life - there was even more outside.

Soft to the touch.

Innocent.

Pure.

Those are the words I use to describe these peasant-quality gifts. But it all balanced out when I embraced a familiar word when opening my favorite type of gift: small.

Small like children.

* * *

**A/N: I've been inspired by the fic Fledgling Villain by contheycallme, but it has sadly stopped updating. I like The Gamer, and I like SVTFOE too. But I will be taking elements from the webtoon Dice. It's like The Gamer, but just better in my opinion.**

**One thing I've come to hate about Gamer fics - which I see way too often - is the exposition tutorial at the beginning of the story. So I decided to do it a bit differently. I choose to show the end result of such hard work and give out the details in good chunks rather than a flood of info we've all heard. Because I don't think I need to write two or three lines of exposition to explain what STR/Strength does.**

**In the case of Marco being evil, I came to the conclusion that there is no possible backstory to fully explain why Marco is the way he is, but even if there is, like most pure-evil villains, it doesn't matter. Speaking of evil, I wanted to make him like Sweet Tooth - with the mask, the iconic lines when butchering a living being, and so on. Add that with cannibalistic tendencies, and a bunch of other stuff in later chapters.**

**As for the Collector, he is a well-remembered monster in the game, Darkest Dungeon. The same thing applies to what Marco is wearing; it matches the items found on the Fanatic, who is also from Darkest Dungeon. ****For the timeline of the story itself, this takes place around the middle of season 2.**

**Anyways, let me know what you think, and what can I improve on.**


	2. Prologue Part 2: Tough Decisions

There was once a time where I wouldn't harbor such violent emotions against Star, and I would welcome her cheerful, limitless energy as she would guide me across her kingdom. Every village under her family's authority, every small detail of the market and their foreign goods, and carnivorous wonders in the Forest of Certain Death.

If she knew that I would weaponize this knowledge later in our lives, she would have never showed me her home. Especially since I was opening her citizens like they were presents.

Oh, how it was beautiful.

There was never enough time to describe the joy of slaughter. Only quivering excitement being the limit of answering the mortal horrors of what I have done. Peeling skin. Fracturing bones. Waiting to pounce upon my prey as I feed off of their instinct to survive.

After I emptied the castle of any lingering life, I've brought them back as undead thralls to join the rest. But the citizens were well aware of their knights' rotting traits as most of them were headless.

They screamed. They panicked. Most ran away to find other knights, and upon realizing the rest has gone with their King to fight against the Monsters projecting their unjust and unwanted existence onto the world, some took arms to protect their homes. They had so much faith in River's judgment and were overconfident in the skill of Mewni's knights.

River was never bright; leaving a fraction of an army to watch over me instead of the vast kingdom only proves those many, humorous arguments I had with Star. But I will admit, he did keep up the morale of the people, reminding everyone how I was a prisoner, adding a few not-so-subtle derogatory comments about how compared to the Queen and Princess being absent, I am nothing more than a minor concern in comparison.

It amazes me how the ones with great physical prowess and lack of mental potency are the ones who can influence moral with such ease and passion. I like to think it is a way of balancing things.

Otherwise, people like Toffee, or me, are left to act upon our own plans.

While River may be part of the royal family, he has no access to magic; with him went to fight battles and leave the kingdom unprotected, the number of walking corpses grew with each passing hour.

I had finally arrived at the final village under the Butterfly's authority. This one had been farther than the rest.

Isolated.

Neglected.

Boring.

I had to make my own fun, spawn my own excitement within my being. After careful planning like a stage director, moving the props and actors - the rubble from homes and corpses of those who lived in them - I focused my attention on a cowering child who looked and trembled with fear from his glassless window.

* * *

I drag the screaming boy out from under his bed - his screams grew louder as he saw his parent's eviscerated bodies strung around like decorations before using [Animated Dead] to make them leap off the wall - and after continuing to slowly pull him across the bloodsoaked ground, letting him see the ruins of his village, guiding my unwilling follower to the deep pit of mud in the village center.

The undead surrounding and scattered within the village moved aside as I approached that slimy area of moist dirt before I tossed him in. He cried and screamed for his _mommy _and _daddy _to come and help him. His thrashing only made him sink faster. His tears were added to collective moisture of the mud as he sank below the surface, only to rise up in desperation to live an unlived future, coughing out rough chunks of mud from his straining lungs.

I gave him what he wanted.

I let the reanimated bodies of his parents drag themselves to their living son, hoisting him up from the surface of the mud. It was hypnotic, how terror and pain are erased with the security of parents onto a child's traumatized face.

It was gone within seconds when he saw his parent's decayed forms.

Their eyes gouged out.

Teeth shattered.

A personal touch on my part.

He panicked and screamed even louder! I snuffed-out all hope of survival the child had as I willed his deceased parents to join him in the mud; the added weight of his dead parents caused them all to sink faster.

He must have cried out one last time.

I doubt he could with his lungs filling with mud.

**System: You have killed a non-royals citizen of Mewni! 5 dice has been added into your inventory!**

**System: You have wiped out an entire population of a village under the jurisdiction of the Butterflies! 20 dice has been added to your inventory!**

Looking back at the silent village, nostalgia creeping within me from memories of Star's tour of her dimension, I am so happy I decided to take the scenic route.

Yet I found it hard to smile without a face.

It is good to carry extra.

**[Mask of the Damned] (Unique)**

**A white mask with a face-splitting smile of crooked, sharp teeth. The straps to hold the mask in place are made out of leather, with special runes to adjust them to fit the wearer. This mask has been made out of bones from a gentle-souled familiar of a Cleric that casts judgment on individuals.**

**Effects: (Persona Voice) The wearer's voice will be altered to be unrecognizable; (Subtle Disturbance) This item causes a feeling of uneasiness when looking at it; (Murderer's Sight) Allows the wearer to see and track beyond what is granted with normal eyesight when hunting down an intended target; (Karma Flame) Wearing this mask causes the user's scalp to be engulfed in an inferno, granting effects depending on the user's actions.**

**Requirements: This is a bound item; must be Marco Diaz in order for the mask to activate any of its effects.**

I wore the mask, a perfect tool of emotional expression now that I am free. I felt my own mind being invaded by its power and judged my soul. It felt like the real thing, and the smile on the front did not disappoint.

**System: Mask of the Damned has created the status effect 'Black Sin'! This has been partially negated by [Gamer's Mind]!**

I felt my skull become brittle from the hellish temperature that swallowed my head, and the pain should have been severely reduced due to not having any nerves on my scalp anymore, but without [Gamer's Body] this fire is torturing my soul. My sins were black as coal to fuel the fires of damnation. Even with [Gamer's Mind] warding off the hallucinatory screams of my victims, it didn't prevent my HP from slowly draining away to fuel my darker spells.

Despite [Hydra Rejuvenescence] countering the rapid HP drain, the pain only got worse as I moved through the Forest of Certain death - a part of me did not find it unwelcomed. [Gamer's Mind] immuning me to detrimental psychological effects, combined with my lack of pleasure in fundamental things to cause such emotion, I had become empty looking for my next fix - to quell the _urges _in me.

They were satisfied in the beginning. They had become nonexistent when Star arrived in my life. And after she cast her spell, burying me under a personality that is nothing more than a mess of anxiety and politeness, the urges have returned stronger than ever.

I stopped in the middle of a clearing, a rare area not inhabited by lethal fauna and poisonous flora as the ground is dry and solid to stand on. The undead horde behind me halted in their march, as some were delayed to rejoin the group as they had to combat nature's wrath in this dangerous swamp.

Even nature can't kill what is already dead, only delaying the decaying thralls from marching to my destination.

I found it very odd that I had not encountered River yet. I wasn't being discreet as I roamed from village to village. Perhaps he perished in battle, or I am very lucky. Either way, I was not going to waste a moment of respite.

Long ago, I had made pacts and contracts with beings from the elemental plane. While they had requirements upon use - freely using my MP, roaming the physical world, being only called upon certain conditions - I felt disrespected, for lack of a better word, and did something more _dominating _instead.

I focused within myself, an easy task to do when the noisy population has been deathly muted. I felt the personifications of the elements in me become disturbed as I focused my attention on one of them. I pressed one of my hands against my chest, and slowly moved my hand away, pulling out orange wisps that slowly formed into a sphere of fire, connected to me by an otherworldly chain made out of foul intent and dark magic.

The chain extended as I threw the ball of fire, suspending in the air, taking the beautiful form of a broken woman of fire. The cinders that made her elegant robe were disheveled and breaking as the heat from her form flickered on and off. Her tired, amber eyes glared back at me as her long and wild hair of flames was unnaturally tamer when I first met her.

"...What do you want, Marco?" Her voice was the enchanting tune of crackling fire. She looked at me with a critical gaze. "It seems you have taken a form that fits your personality."

"Isn't it amazing it, Ember?" I spread my arms wide, my voice no longer what it was because of my mask, and it was the very same item that portrayed my excitement. "The silence!"

"What. Do. You. Want?" Ember seethed, her signature temper rose like the heat of her body, only for the chain to emit a dark and foul aura that painfully reverted her back to a pathetic state. Her agonizing screams are a nice touch too.

She really acts as the personification of fire. "Ah-ah-ah," I said with a condescending wave of my finger. "Careful Ember, it's that same caution that kept you from being mentally destroyed like the others."

"Then there is nothing for me to say." She said, her voice filled with contempt. If she could say anything, it wouldn't be anything nice. "You already use us; we're nothing more than your slaves. You never wanted us to independently act on our own - always forcing us to act - why change now?"

"I merely wish to present an offer that can benefit us both!" I said grandly. "Everybody wants something! Even the personifications of the elements…"

"I'm not falling for it - I've been submerged inside you, Marco!" She interrupted. "I know what happens when you get others to play in your sick games!"

"And I wouldn't be having this conversation if you didn't know that." I complimented, and it made her angrier. "But I won't be doing what I've done with others, because this isn't a game, it's a bargain. Even if it was a game, it's a game so easy to beat, it won't be a problem winning your freedom!"

"F-Freedom?" Ember whispered as if she would never have the chance for such a luxury.

My mannerisms slipped into what I've done to tempt others into playing a rigged game. "Play my game - as you call it - and help me with my plans. If you do, I swear on my parent's grave, that you and the rest of your elemental siblings in me will never have to work for me ever again."

"What would I have to do?" She asked with skepticism, a valuable survival skill. "What are the rules for this game?"

It's not a game, just a bargain. She's not as smart as I thought if she can't remember that. I let out a sigh. "Not like the rest, I promise you that," I said, gesturing to the Forest of Certain Death and my undead army. "It's a simple quest. Your siblings help me gather resources - wood, metal, stone - while you specifically burn down anything left in Butterfly's castle - Ludo will be moving in soon after he deals with River and the knights he brought with him."

"But you already killed everyone in the castle." Ember pointed out. "And you've burned everything else. Why do you even need me?"

"I didn't burn everything." I corrected. "If I really wanted to burn everything down, I would have had to spend more time in the castle then necessary. Star took something _precious _from me - and can't waste any more time before she decides to _open _it! It would ruin everything I've worked for!"

I could focus my attention on the Princess while Ember burns everything I didn't touch. If her being an extension of my power due to the magical chains, it will still count as me burning property, and earn me more dice in the process. I'm going to need a lot for what I have planned; a legacy that will continue my work, long after I'm gone.

"Let's say I do what you want - it wouldn't be too hard," Ember said. "Then what? I go back in you and be submerged?"

"After I've gathered enough to build," I began. "You will all help me craft war machines to aid me in my own _personal _quest. If you complete it within a day, your reward is that none of you will have to work for me ever again."

"Must be important if you need it done in a day," She said. "And what is your _personal _quest?"

"To kill Star Butterfly."

Ember scoffed. "Of course you would plot to murder your best friend! I expected no less from you, Marco."

"If you truly were submerged within me, and watching everything, you would know why I am going to kill her." My rising volume in my voice made her flinch, easily shutting her up. "She traps me in my own head, with a split-personality of her own making with the wand. I was unable to do anything, but watch! The only blessing from this is that she isn't good with her magic, and the split-personality she unknowingly created was made by extracting all of the 'good' within me - it's like a reset button for my consciousness! Nothing can stop me now!"

The fire elemental's confidence returned, and she glowed more victorious. "Now you know how we felt being trapped inside you!"

"And you know how strong the desire for freedom is!" I smoothly answered. I'll let her have her petty victory. I stretched out my skeletal hand. "Now that you know I can empathize with you, do we have a deal?"

She didn't answer me for a moment, just staring at my hand, then at me. "If you experienced the same hell we have been through, can't you just let us go?" Ember pleaded, she visibly dimmed and was now on the grass. Her fire not enough to burn it. She looked so tired. I love that look. "Please… I want it to end…"

"Hey, the faster you help me, the sooner it will end," I promise, my hand still reaching out to her. "And despite my murderous deals I made with previous contestants, you know I never break a promise."

"...I could kill you once I'm free, you know."

"And I could have cannibalized you and many other fire elementals to make the ultimate fire weapon." I reminded her, frustrated that she still hasn't given me an answer. "But you offered to serve me in exchange for sparing your mother's life and leaving the elemental plane of fire alone. You've been watching within me, you know I always keep my word. You either help me or not Ember - either way, someone will be getting what they want. If that includes you? That depends on your answer. So last chance. Do we have a deal?"

She seemed to think it over one last time before she firmly grasps my outstretched hand with her own - it felt so comfortably warm. "Deal… do you truly swear on your parent's grave?" Ember asked.

"Of course!" I said. "After all, I am the one who buried them!"

"You buried your own parents?"

"Yep." I chuckled as I remembered that day. "And when they both tried to dig up to the surface to escape being buried alive - I shot them both in the face!"

* * *

After finally reaching the magical sanctuary in the swamps - oddly guarded by blue crocodiles - Star and her mother had wasted no time trying to revive the Magical High Commission. When placing them in their pods, and trying to access the magic the sanctuary provided, it was a disgusting dark green. It was nearly black.

Moon didn't want to risk the tainted magic touching the inactive Magical High Commission, she had to think about what to do next. But she decided to do so with a well-rested mind - a drowsy mind can make mistakes - and it was especially mentally exhausting when dealing with the rat soldiers employed by Ludo, the knowledge of Toffee still being alive and secretly encouraging Monsters to fight the other kingdoms, and the boy Marco.

There wasn't enough time to describe how complicated the issues were with him. It was made worse when her daughter brought him to the castle, a way to rehabilitate the damaged boy in some hope of changing him. Moon thought it was a kind idea, and River always supported his child.

The boy was polite, respectful, and brought out the best in her daughter. She was even more impressed that Marco could do magic! Apparently, he had been helping Star with her own magical training.

"You know, I was skeptical when you brought him here," Moon once said in a conversation with her daughter as she watched Marco heal the injured in the kingdom. "But I can see he is a good kid."

"I know!" Star said excitedly. "I'm so happy he's changed for the better!"

Moon stared at her daughter. "Changed?" She asked in confusion. "What would he need to change? He seems polite enough."

"O-Oh yeah!" Star nervously said. "Marco doesn't need to change; he's fine!"

However, Moon being the Queen means she has to deal with the subtle manipulations of politics, and Star was terrible at being subtle - Moon knew something was wrong. But when Star kept dodging her question about Marco's past, Moon went back to Earth to gather information on Marco.

She found nothing, except about the death of his parents. Marco was always known as the Safe Kid, he never attracted the attention of any authority figures, or was ever the origin of suspicion. It would have been fine if Star said he had a spotless record, but her persistence of failing to change the topic when Marco's life came up made it more suspicious.

It was a stroke of luck that she overheard the two having a serious conversation in Star's bedroom.

"-I thought you were done with granting wishes - what the heck, Marco!" Star yelled from behind the door. "Why did you do that to Higgs?!"

"What did I do?" Marco said, but Moon can hear unnatural humor to his voice, and it did not sound like the Marco she had gotten to know. "I just gave her what she wanted-"

"You manipulated royal documents to prematurely make her a knight! " Star yelled, much to Moon's shock. "Only the royal family can swear a squire into knighthood, and you somehow bypassed that!"

"And in doing so, gave Higgs her life dream!" Marco said with laughter, it sounded cruel. "She became a knight of Mewni, just like she wished for! She is forever remembered as the youngest girl to ever become a knight!"

"And the youngest to retire due to crippling injuries because you made her a knight before she could properly finish her training!" Star pointed out as he continued to laugh. "She couldn't defend herself when she was stationed deep in the Forest of Certain Death!"

"S-She just wanted to be a knight," Marco could barely contain his giggles. "But I only made her a knight only in _name_ \- how hilarious is that?!" He bursts out laughing, clapping his hands.

"You said your [Wish] skill was gone!" Star yelled as Marco continued to laugh, making her angrier. "I can't believe you lied to me, Marco - you even promised me!"

Marco's laughter died down when she said that. "...Are you calling me a liar?" Marco's voice had no amusement in it. It sounded dangerous.

"I don't know, are you?!" Star shouted. "I honestly don't know anymore!"

"We both know that I can't lie to you." Marco reminded sternly. "If you remembered that, even after all this time, you would realize that lying to you would have no purpose. I don't get anything out of it!"

"Then how did you make Higgs a knight without using [Wish]?" Star accused. "You told me you locked it away in the coffin!"

"I did!" Marco said. "Along with most of my skills! It wasn't easy creating something that could allow me to transfer my skills, Star. And I did - except for the two single-use [Wish] items that _you _told me to keep for emergencies, and I'm not going to waste it on Higgs!"

"Then how did you grant her wish?"

"I exploited your kingdom's bureaucracy," Marco answered. "Your parents can't be around for everything, or to notice anything out of the ordinary, especially when they have to run an entire magical kingdom while maintaining peace with others. Since there were so many people, and so much paperwork, a forged certificate of Higgs knighthood slipping in the system was easily unnoticed."

"But someone must have noticed!" Star said, trying to grasp how here kingdom's government had so many cracks to be exploited. "Were you bribing people?" It wouldn't be the first time, Marco always keeps emergency stacks of 650 dollars in his inventory.

"I was collecting debt." Marco corrected. "In exchange for healing their families who live in the poorer areas of the kingdom, the royal bureaucracy didn't mind if I changed a few things on paper."

Then it all made sense why Marco was so cooperative when it came to helping others on Mewni: he didn't do out of the supposed kindness of his heart, he did it for his own twisted ends! Moon felt anger and being manipulated, for being made a fool, but her own daughter felt something worse. Star felt a sense of betrayal, one that hurt so deep after trying so hard to make him a better person. "I thought you wanted to do some good for once..." Star said, her voice growing soft. "...I thought you wanted to change."

"I did it because _you _wanted me to - if you hadn't asked me to heal them, I would have never bothered to do so!" Marco snapped in a rare moment of anger, making the princess flinch. He didn't say anything for a while before sounding tired. "...I'm not a good person, Star... and trying to be one just makes me _so _miserable. The sooner you realize that the _easier _it will be for both of us."

"Easier for what?"

"To kill me," Marco said bluntly, startling the princess before his voice became nostalgic. "Remember how we used to be?"

"We _hated _each other." Star reminded, shocking Moon even more as she continues to secretly listen in on their conversation. "Why do you look so happy?" Her voice raised at that question.

"If someone hates you enough, then you know where you stand with them," Marco said, his voice still filled with joy. "There was no fake friendships, no hidden intents - everything we did to each other was passionate and true!"

"We lashed out at each other!" Star said. "We projected our own problems at each other instead of working it out! We should have been trying to fix ourselves, not break each other!"

"But we did!" Marco said, his tone still positive. "We found comfort in each other - you didn't have to hold back your impulsive personality behind the persona of being a 'proper princess', and I didn't have to act like the Safe Kid everyone sees me as!"

"It was toxic," Star said. "I...I kept running away from the problems I caused!"

"But you can admit you had a problem!" Marco pointed out. "Back then, you would have just made an excuse, or drag me along on a distracting adventure, but you don't do that anymore! You've come so far - it's amazing!"

"Then why can't you do the same?" Star asked with a hint of desperation in her voice. "If I can change, if I can admit my mistakes, acknowledging my faults, and improve myself as a person, why can't you?"

"You just had strict parents, and knowing you're going to become a princess, taking on many responsibilities and will never be able to do your usual fun activities anymore, was just a heavy weight on your mind," Marco said. "If it makes you feel better, what little conscious I had, you helped it grow."

Star let out a sad sigh. "Yet not enough to change you for the better."

"Sadly no - rehabilitation isn't instantaneous," Marco said. "But it was enough for me to care about what you have to say; I went against my own beliefs to help other people because you told me to."

"I shouldn't have to tell you to be nice!" Star said. "If it's forced, then it doesn't mean anything - you taught me that!"

"I know." Marco agreed. "If people can do things without being made to do them, the world would be an honest place - but nothing is more honest than true enemies expressing their undying hatred to one another, and doing everything they can to one-upping each other."

"Just like we used to do," Star whispered. "Is that what this is about? Trying to live in the past?"

Marco nodded. "Those were the happiest moments of my life. I had a worthy enemy, someone who could outsmart me, and was so unpredictable that she made my life so...colorful." He said warmly, trying to find the right word. "You are one of the few good things in my life that I cherish, and I just didn't want to lose that."

"And you really mean that?"

"Of course I do," Marco said. "Look, I tried to change, Star, I tried for you - I owe you that much." He then let out a defeated sigh. "But it's not me. No matter how hard I try, nothing can make me a good person. I did a lot of awful things, and I'm probably going to do more - that is just the way things are."

Star was silent for a while before she spoke. "What if I use a spell to help..."

The Queen shook her head of that memory, of how later on she had a serious very conversation she had with Star afterward, and Moon would be lying if she said that conversation didn't make their relationship rocky - even more so when she decided to place Marco in a guarded cell.

Like any confrontation between parent and child, it started off gently. Then it became stern, eventually defensive and making excuses, before finally ending in yelling at one another before one of them ended up crying and leaving while the other felt frustrated and sad.

Moon let out a sigh to clear her thoughts before resting on a large gathering of moss on a stone slab. While the Queen is content with resting in the magical sanctuary, Star had decided to take a more _active_ role. Ignoring her mother's warning about using the wand as half of the gem is embedded in Ludo's right hand, and he is possessed by Toffee; both halves are connected by abnormal means, and using one could pinpoint the location of the other.

Star had too much on her mind and worried a lot more than usual when she saw how much destruction they saw on the way to the sanctuary. Going to a more secluded area where her mother won't see her use a certain spell from Eclipsa's Forbidden Chapter.

"Show me, Butterfly Castle," Star whispered to not wake her mother. Watching in confusion through the portal created by the All-Seeing Eye spell, she looked around to see that the castle is mostly empty, and large patches, puddles, and smears of blood staining the place. "What happened? Where did everyone go…?"

Then a terrible thought struck her mind. "Where's Marco?"

Instantly, the image changed to a dark empty cell, chains broken and scattered on the floor with the two cooked, and partially eaten, guards who were supposed to be watching over him.

"No..." Star whispered in panic as she put the clues together. "No, no, no! Where did he go?!"

What she saw next could only be described as a horror show. Upon Star's request, the All-Seeing Eye showed her where Marco went. Every home and room containing a living and breathing person, now empty and stained with blood, more brutal than the last. After nauseating minutes of seeing rapid images of his signature slaughter, Star saw a massive trail of footprints, eventually leading to an undead horde tearing through the Forest of Certain Death.

All of the decayed bodies were headless, wearing a weapon and armor tainted with a foul aura. Then there was the undead that was just a head, and spine, with an ethereal body. Star nearly screamed if she hadn't covered her mouth when she recognized one of them: Lady Whosits. All of them ruthlessly butchering everything in their path.

The number of dead animals left behind in their wake was enough to make her sick, but before she could end the spell, she saw the one creature separated from the maggot-infested horde. A humanoid wearing a yellow cloak with trinkets layered over it. A pair of spaulders on its shoulders. Cloves of garlic hanging down from its neck like a tie. Three wooden stakes strapped to its arm. A book chained to the left side of its hip. Faded words on something that resembled a loose scarf, with three red seals that did not appear to be made out of wax. The only visible parts were the skeletal hands, and wearing a smiling mask while it's skull is lit with dark fire.

It seemed to be talking with a woman that resembled a dying flame. When Star willed the image to zoom in to hear what they're talking about; she held her breath when the skeletal creature looked back at her through the portal, seeming to know she is spying on it. The fire lady said something Star didn't hear, but then the cloaked monster turned to a certain direction and said, "I found you-"

"Star!" Moon shouted from behind her.

"Ah!" Star dropped the wand, ending the All-Seeing Eye spell. She quickly turned around to see her mother glaring at her. "Mom! Uh, hi?"

"What did I say about using the wand?" Her mother said sternly, snatching it off the ground before Star could react. "You could compromise everything, Star!"

"I just wanted to check on everyone!"

"This is another example of your reckless behavior!" Moon argued, reminding her daughter how she impulsively attacked a patrol of rats. "You are not thinking things through!"

"I was just using one of Eclipsa's spells-!"

"Eclipsa's spell?" Moon gasped. "You used dark magic from the Forbidden Chapter! What if it corrupted you?" Her voice rose when she asked that question.

"It was just a quick peek!" Star said. "Nothing bad would have happened from the spell!"

"Maybe not from the spell, but perhaps from Ludo or Toffee if they discover our location?" Moon countered, holding up the wand to see that the half-gem embedded into it is glowing green. "Your father, the knights of the kingdom, the terrified citizens, are putting up with a lot because we are running out of options! The Magical High Commission cannot be revived - one of them died - magic is almost gone from the universe, and Monsters are ravaging the land! What were you _thinking _that this would be a good time to use the wand when I had warned you many times not to?"

"...because I wasn't thinking," Star admitted with a hint of shame, surprising her mother. "I was afraid of not knowing… and I was frustrated that I couldn't do anything, and still can't do anything!" Star said, on the brim of tears. "I was desperate enough to steal something important from my best friend, and I'm supposed to be the one to teach him how to be a better person!"

As much as Moon wanted to say something about how anything Marco values cannot be good, the Queen instead let out a sigh that seemed to release her anger. She wouldn't dare to yell at her emotionally-vulnerable daughter. "I know it has not been easy," She said gently, sitting down next to her daughter before putting an arm around her shoulders, and pulling her into a motherly embrace. "And I know you're anxious to do something, rather than staying in the sanctuary. It's simply in your nature to worry about those you are close to." She then gave Star a small smile. "It's one of the traits you've inherited from your father."

"Do you think he's okay?" Star whispered, blinking away the tears. "I didn't see him in the castle when I used the spell."

"I'm sure he's fine," Moon assured. "He's stubborn Star - people like that don't go down easily."

"I wish I had the courage to go out and fight." Star leaned into her mother. "I just feel useless being here when I can do more."

"You being stuck here has nothing to do with your bravery," Moon said. "I'm sure if things weren't so dire, you would be helping your father and me defend Mewni." For a moment, her voice was filled with pride. "And it takes a lot of bravery to admit you've done something wrong." Moon had dealt with a lot of people twice her age who would make excuses rather than admit their wrongdoings, and seeing Star do the opposite filled her with hope for the future ruling of the kingdom.

That is assuming they survive and defeat the forces tearing the world apart.

"Did I make a mistake by bringing Marco here?" Star asked quietly. "Was it wrong of me to steal from the person I tried to rehabilitate?"

"It's been a long day," Moon said eventually if it's one thing she learned about her daughter, any question related to Marco is very sensitive and complicated - it would be long, complicated, and could possibly end in another shouting match. And she is too exhausted - both physically and mentally - to give a proper answer. "We will talk more in the morning..."

Moon was cut off when the entire sanctuary violently shook.

* * *

**A/N: When I read gamer fics, the protagonist always bonds or makes a deal with elementals in order to use their power. I have yet seen a story where the elementals are dominated/enslaved, or maybe I just haven't found one that does.**

**Anyways, the prologue will have two more parts before the story begins.**

**And yes, Marco is evil. Just like elementals, I have yet to find a fic on this fandom where Marco is actually evil - I'm talking about super evil, not those stories where he is possessed/tricked/manipulated into doing evil things, those, to me, don't count.**

**Leave a review, and let me know what I can improve on.**


	3. Prologue Part 3: Impossiblilities

_Marco POV_

"[Abyssal Artillery]!" I shouted for the third time, raising my skeletal hands, coating them with the dark fire the envelopes my skull.

**[Abyssal Artillery] (Active) Level MAX**

**The Heart is the living of a simple but true philosophy; life feeds on life. Those it finds worthy are granted brief moments of cosmic power, growing stronger and more horrifying with devotion and sacrifices.**

**This skill allows you to call down hooked tentacles over a limited area. These dangerous extensions are feral and independent, and will wrap, grapple, or shred anything within their grasp.**

**Due to your fanatical sacrifices of Mewmans, the Heart has allowed you to use this power up to 4 times per day.**

Above the magic sanctuary, a red right bleed from the night sky as gigantic, hooked tentacles flail down to wrap around the building and violently shake it, cutting into the material and churning the swamp water it resides in an attempt to rip it apart.

Time had passed before the duration of the skill reached its limit, and the hooked tentacles retracted back to the cosmic patron that allowed me to do so, erasing any presence of me ever using the skill.

"If it didn't work for the first two times, why would a third attempt be different?" Ember asked as she reformed near me, she looked healthier and scorching when I eased the binding spell. "You're not the kind of person to waste time, Marco."

"I needed to test how strong the magic sanctuary really is," I said as I pulled out a chunk of reptile meat from my inventory. "The first time was to check if it had any magical shielding or barrier of sorts. The second time was to see if I could lift it. The third time was to see if there were other security features to deal with continuous outside threats."

"What about the blue crocodiles guarding the place?" She asked as I held the chunk of animal flesh in the black flame covering my skull, mostly burning it in an instant before I removed it. "You said that they would guard this place."

"They did, and they came out trying to defend the sanctuary when I called upon the skill a second time." I raised the cooked reptile meat in my bony hand, moving my mask upward enough to expose my mouth. It was chewy and burnt, and it tasted mildly like quail. "What do you think I'm eating?"

**System: Meal has been eaten! MP has been restored! [Voracious Growth] has been activated! By consuming a guardian near a magical site, INT has been increased by 2!**

I no longer have a tongue to detect the taste, and yet I do anyways. My stomach literally fell out of me when I put on the Collector's Cloak, but the food I consume does not fall out of me when I swallow.

My power allows me to do, even when it is physically impossible.

But recent events have taught me that _impossible _is just a word created by those who lack the determination to make their dreams into reality. An excuse by those who have an absence in resolve to achieve their goals.

I refuse to be like them.

Ignorant.

Proud.

Defensive.

Loud.

I turned away from the magical sanctuary, admiring the damage I have done, to look at the fire elemental. "Is it done?"

Ember returned my question with a glare, not answering my question as if I asked something stupid - giving me that look of condescension that I've seen on many faces before. She is like a forest fire that refuses to be extinguished, her own special way to spite me when I dominated the other elementals and shattered their minds.

Yet when I gave her the privilege of freedom, being able to move away from my body at will, what does she do? She shows disrespect.

Individuality is among the many reasons why I force elementals to cooperate, rather than mutual partnership.

I willed the dark, ethereal chain to reform around her body. Her gasps of shock was replaced with cries of agony as I willed them to tighten around her throat - spikes erupted from each link to pierce her form; cuts and wounds bleed precious heat.

I moved over to her, towering over her pathetic form. "When I ask you a question, you answer it."

"It's…" She choked as the chains got tighter. "It's done - I set the inside of the castle and anything else, one fire - anything left inside will be reduced to ashes and rubble; Ludo won't have any problems moving in. The flammable liquid you brewed sped up the process…!" She struggled to say anything more, releasing nothing more than choking grunts and a desperate need to breathe.

"See?" I willed the chains away as breathing became easier for her. "Was that so hard?" She opened her mouth to retort, but I pressed my bony finger against the mouth of my mask of crooked, spiked teeth before pointing back in the opposite direction of the sanctuary - the way I came from when Star used her spell to spy on me - to show the mounds of ore and wood being stacked and piled high by my undead horde, and the mentally-shattered elementals that helped them. "Remember what's at stake here, Ember: freedom will only come if you fulfill your end of the deal!"

"I burned the inside of the castle as you said!"

"That was only _one _of the requirements," I reminded. "You still need to help me build my machines of war within the day. And yet, you continue to waste my time by not answering a simple question about the task I gave you!"

"...why do you even need my help?" She asked, confusion and anger clear in her raspy voice from being strangled by dark magic. "I've seen you do much more all on your own, you even managed to find Star."

"And yet I can't get in!" I reminded, but there was some truth to Ember's words; [Detect Magic] allowed me to see the blonde princess spying on me - it didn't take too long to locate the source. I locked most of my skills away in the coffin, but I kept the bare necessities. But the fire elemental didn't need a reminder of that, I know she saw everything when I willingly weakened myself upon Star's request. The princess's logic was simple as it was naive: if I don't have the means to hurt others, I won't enable myself to exercise my sadistic habits. "But I always find a way."

I couldn't tell if I was referring to the impenetrable magical sanctuary where the mother and daughter of the Butterfly family resided, or if I was talking reminding myself of how using [Heal] in a creative way granted the squire, Higgs, premature knighthood - a self-taught lesson of how my skills do not need to be harmful in _nature _to have it be harmful in _consequence_.

The same applies to what I'm about to do when the materials presented to me.

I moved over to the large clearing. Heavy deforestation and excavation played its part in doing so, creating plenty of room for the elementals I once summoned, their forms once proud and full of life have been reduced to insulting proportions - what material appearance their eyes had were long faded into a submissive milky white, a price to pay when forcing their evolution to increase their potency of mastering the elements.

I should be recalling their names, but when summoning and binding elementals one after the other, seeing these creatures as individuals with identity never occurs until moments of clarity. The only reason I remember Ember's name is because of my invasion of the realm of fire, the only time I ever did anything personal with an elemental.

Unlike the adventures I had with Star, I only invaded the elemental realm because of my curiosity turned into a whimsical ambition; to build a terrifying super-weapon by cannibalizing the personifications of fire. It felt easier to go to the source, rather than summon them one at a time.

I watched an earth elemental made out of smooth, grey rocks that were layered over his body like scales of an exotic animal, with precious metals and gems shining through the gaps. With his hands stretched outward, he raised them slowly with strain, and the ground burst open with raw, unrefined metal. I remember him boasting about how he could move mountains, but I thought it was nothing more than the arrogance of strength - not a fact of geokinesis - and felt great pleasure in burying him in the darkness within me.

The water elemental pulled water from the swamp. Her body made out of the purest liquid that shone like polished pearls in the ocean, a hypnotic beauty rippling with each fluid movement of her aquatic form as she used the swamp water to wrap around the uprooted minerals before rapidly washing away any dirt and undesirables, leaving behind a polished chunk of metal that several of the headless undead wordlessly carried away. I recalled that she had an enchanting voice - the last time I heard it was her cries and sorrow when I submerged her with dark magic.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Ember asked, looking away from her fellow elementals with sadness and pity, but her form flared in anger of the injustice of my own actions. I found it amusing.

"Just stand over there; I'm going to need you later." I pointed to the group of headless, decaying Mewmans that carried the mass of metal to the ever-growing pile far to the left. Easy to see it stacked next to the pile of uprooted trees due to the clearing expanding as a consequence of reducing living individuals and elemental beings to mindless labor forces who can never feel exhaustion. "Wait until I bring out the other elementals to join you - I'm going to need all of them to craft what I need to tear Mewni apart."

"Why not command them?" Ember asked, her pride of an elemental bruised of being reduced to a mere heat source.

"They are nothing more than a cheap source for my elemental skills," More accurate to say they reduced the cost - while increased the potency - of my element-related skills by 90%. "Other than that, they can only follow basic orders-" Move this. Clean that. Repeat_._ "-and I don't rely on others to help me, I exploit them until I no longer have any use for them, and then I get rid of them."

I've faced and killed many, many people - small armies, scores of bandits, knights protecting their kingdom - and I would be lying if I didn't acknowledge their collective strength, and how I had many close-calls with death.

But strength in numbers is an illusion.

Once you systematically eliminate their numbers, fighting an _individual _rather than big groups, the threat becomes dismissable.

Lady Whosits and her knights is just a recent example among the many I have in memory.

I once had partnered with a blacksmith to provide my weapons and armor, only to discover that he was purposely overcharging me, despite generous donations of rare materials.

I was once a regular and frequent customer to a friendly witch who provided me potions, and I learned much later in a near-death event that the brews and antidotes I paid for were heavily diluted.

I had no choice but to rely on them for repairs and refills - when I confronted them, anger fueling my confidence to show their wrongdoing - they never let me forget my dependence on what they provide, and later charged me _double _the price for _half _of their services.

It was only after spending a month of plundering and studying knowledge of craftsmanship and apothecaries is when I entered their shops for the last time and murdered them both in broad daylight.

So I refuse to depend on others; I refuse to invest in other people - my strength, my power, my money, time, and effort, it's mine, and mine alone! To be selfishly hoarded and spent any way I wish; _not _to be thinned and diminished by investing rare materials in a blacksmith or supporting the business of a witch, or complying with a blonde princess by healing the sick or repairing shelters in the poorer areas of her kingdom in a petty attempt for redemption and reform! It's a waste, a very irritating waste I vow to never repeat.

Teamwork, cooperation, partnerships - whatever synonym that exists - are nothing more than a weakness; I could go as far as to call it cancer.

It is no different than my partnership with Star, and my cooperation with Toffee, or any collaboration with anyone else, because I will soon cut out the disease.

* * *

"What was that?" Star asked as the violent tremors had finally died down, leaving behind an ominous silence.

"Don't worry, Star," Moon reassured her daughter, still holding her in a motherly embrace. "This place has been a safe haven throughout the Butterfly bloodline - it has protected our ancestors, and it will protect us."

"B-But the building was shaking!" She said, her nerves on edge upon discovering the slaughter back at the castle, and the haunting skeleton creature in a yellow cloak she saw with the All-Seeing Eye spell.

"And yet nothing is breaking apart." Moon gestured to the interior of the sanctuary; it was still messy, and the Magical High Commission is still inactive in their pods. Yet nothing happened to show it was getting worse. "Even as the building shakes, no dust or specks of debris fell from the ceiling."

Even in the face of danger, all it takes to soothe the nerves is the calming words of a mother.

"...so what do we do now?" Star asked her mother. She wasn't worried, but she wasn't relaxed either. The slaughter she witnessed with the All-Seeing Eye made her want to act, to do something to prevent more lives from being taken!

Yet in the back of her mind, there lies the fact of Marco's escape, and it was enough for her to hesitate.

She had never agreed to keep Marco in a cell, chained and interrogated by the Magical High Commission, but with how adamant her mother was - especially her caution with evil and dark magic - Star could only make the best out of a worse scenario.

Magic seemed to be the answer, just like it was before.

Marco was skeptical of the idea of how a spell could fix everything wrong with him, but after some arguing, and begging and crying on Star's part, he finally caved in. She never forgets the amount of relief she felt that day, her fears of her friend being encased in crystal and eternally locked away were at ease.

The results spoke for themselves. Marco seemed happy, more willing to try and be good, helping people - enough for him to earn a pardon from his crimes against her kingdom, something which seemed impossible to do! Seeing how more valuable he is alive, and his serious attempts of reform, even the Magical High Commission and their paranoia agreed to let him go under the condition he was monitored and guarded.

After seeing him continue to cooperate, helping the kingdom by healing the sick and repairing various building with his skills, Star would finally relax - she never had to worry about unsolved murders or missing people who vanished without a trace, which were obviously caused by Marco - and could have a social life once more.

Star never thought she would ever do so, but if there is one thing she learned from Marco, it is that nothing is impossible; she even manages to start over with Tom. Friends at the moment, but they frequently started to hang out more, and Marco supported her without complaint. Always smiling, even when he tagged along and didn't do much, he said he had a great time. Yet she could tell he was lying, but she decided it was a more minor concern to be confronted later.

Star just wished she actually did. She never gave Marco any indication that she and her mother were fleeing the castle, and feels very guilty of stealing the only precious thing he had taken with him when he came to Mewni.

"Like I said before," Moon's gentle voice snapped Star out of her thoughts. "We need to get some rest."

With a lot weighing on her mind, Star sighed as the mental fatigue took its effects, and said, "Alright." Which seemed to earn an approving nod from her mother, a small smile on her face.

Moon helped her daughter to her feet, before separating from her to sit on a bed of moss. "Tomorrow we will need a plan, but what I warned earlier still stands: do not-"

"-use the wand." Star finished for her. "It could attract Toffee to our location, and until we can revive the Magical High Commission, we must keep ourselves hidden."

Moon nodded in approval, feeling proud of her daughter before closed her eyes, and laid down on her bed of moss; prepared to fall asleep, but not until her daughter's voice prevented her from doing so.

"Hey, mom..." Star's voice was a whisper, trying not to disturb her tired mother. "...I love you."

Even though her eyes were closed, Moon felt them become moist. Sometimes it was easy to forget the bond of family in dire times, and the strength it possesses when all seems lost. "...I love you too." And with those final words, the Queen felt at ease and drifted off into a deep sleep fueled by panic, danger, and emotional fatigue.

Star was alone with her thoughts. Immediately, she thought about her escaped friend, and the skeleton monster with its head on fire, and the chance of the creature's identity is _actually _Marco. But Star shook her head of those thoughts, for she has faith in her friend - he said he would try to change, and she used a spell to bring out the good in him. There was no way he was capable of doing something so awful now.

It was only her, the wand that she cannot use, and the precious item that she stole from her best friend when she fled with her mother. Star quietly walked over to the area of the sanctuary, where oddly enough had a vending machine of various corn-related goods, and kneeled in front of a large rectangular object covered in cloth.

She gently unwrapped it, revealing it to be a grey, rectangular safe. However, it would be accurate to describe it as a vault in the form of a coffin - 54 inches long to be exact. It had 7 large clamps placed around to firmly secure the lid to the main box where the valuable contents lie within - two clamps on the top, three at the bottom, and one on each side as every clamp has a complex lock built in. Each one comprising of keyhole and a combination dial. Each keyhole needing a special, and most importantly, different key - not to unlock the clamp, but to allow the small combination dial above the keyhole to move. For good measure to keep it shut, it is covered in lengths of barbed wire that crisscrossed across the lid. The barbed wire was enchanted to contract, so even if the clamps were removed, the coffin still couldn't be opened as the lid was held down.

"What could possibly be inside you?" Star wondered as it was surprisingly easy to carry the coffin all the way the magical sanctuary, probably due to the many runes and symbols layered together in a complex pattern on its surface. Her mother and the Magical High Commission warned her about what was written on the coffin could only be done with dark magic. What was more disturbing was that she could swear that the runes and patterns _moved_ when she wasn't focusing on it; crawling across the metal surface like ants feasting on an animal's corpse, moving around the picture of a large, horned skull engraved on the front with a red handprint on its forehead.

She tried to ask Marco about it, what made it so special that he would invest so much time and energy in making sure it could never be opened, but he would always give vague and abstract answers. As if he didn't want to think about what was contained inside it, how he seemed conflicted about what he made, and how he couldn't decide if the coffin should be opened, or if it required more locks.

There was once a time where Star's curiosity got the better of her, and she furiously tried to discover what her friend locked away. Yet even when using the wand, Star couldn't get the coffin to open as no matter what spell she used, as it would deconstruct any spell or magic before the horned-skull engravement on the front would 'inhale' it.

It's for that exact feature why Star was desperate enough to steal it from her friend.

Toffee possess the other half of the wand, still being able to cast dangerous spells while magic is being drained from the universe, leaving magic users like her mother weak while causing the current empty-like state of the remaining members of the Magical High Commission - it was easy to forget that Lekmet died - but if the coffin could negate Toffee's advantage, they would only have to deal with a possessed Ludo and his rats.

Star could only pray that Marco would understand why she betrayed his trust, but she knew it wouldn't be a problem, he has changed for the better; while forgiveness is a new concept she is trying to teach him, Star is confident it will all work out.

As she fantasized about victory, a hopeful smile on her face, Star took the cloth she used to wrap around the coffin before folding it repeatedly into a messy, make-shift pillow. She slept near it, with a plan in mind combined with fatigue from recent events, only for her flinch with her eyes open in shock when she heard something unexpected from the coffin.

She stared at the metal box in disbelief before hesitantly placing her 'pillow' on the coffin's disturbing lid to shield her from the barbed wire. Placing her head on it, Star pressed her ear against the coffin's surface, holding her breath to confirm what she heard coming from inside it.

It sounded like a child crying.

* * *

"...how many do you have inside you?" Ember asked as she watched me in horror.

"Elementals or severed heads?" I asked as I opened the front of my cloak, revealing the uncountable quantity of decayed craniums that are layered and melting, stretching and lining the inside of my cloak.

All of it brightly illuminated by the cramped spheres of elementals confined within me. Folding in and out of one another, twisting and breaking, reforming and dissipating before the cycle repeats as their agonizing cries grow quiet. For Ember to survive and retain her individuality is an impossible feat, yet she is living proof of defiance to my cruelty.

A mistake I am going to rectify very soon.

I reached within me, grabbing the amalgamation of elementals within me before pulling them out. The pain I felt from the fire burning my skull was easily overshadowed by what I was doing, sending a tsunami of agony throughout my body as the only natural thing I did on instinct was to laugh.

I giggled like a madman as I had to resort to using both of my skeletal hands to rip out the chaotic mess of my own making, pulling slowly as Ember continued to watch with a blend of beautiful disturbance etched on her face before I finally let out a scream and tore every elemental I had out of my body.

They unwoven in the air as my laughter slowly died down, leaving my hands trembling as the pain faded. I heard a series of wet _plops_ from under me, as deflated heads of my victims spilled out. They looked more akin to popped zits than rotting, flesh-stretched heads.

**System: Forced extraction of elementals has resulted in a loss of 60% Maximum HP!**

"Oh, the prices we pay..." I said, watching the freed elementals take their humanoid forms, slumped over and submissive as their eyes are filled with emptiness. Blood puddled under me in the most graphic detail, but my maximum HP is still higher than normal without the Collector's Cloak; I've collected that many heads to do so. "Oh, that felt so refreshing!"

"...you're sick, you know that?" Ember said, looking appalled. "You're a sick _fuck_, Marco!"

"You're damn right I am!" I retorted with an odd sense of deja vu, and some nostalgia: it feels like I'm arguing with Star all over again. "But I'm running out of time, and I'm frankly not in the mood to give you a courtesy warning when ripping myself open! Just like how I'm not giving anyone on Mewni any time to react when I'm finished crafting!"

"You!" I pointed to the metal elemental, her silver humanoid body was an ever-changing fluidity. I then pointed at the large pile of metal ores that were pulled to the surface. "Get in there!"

Without resisting, she glided her way across the barren land, causing a breeze to ripple through the thousands of golden stringed metal that grew from her scalp as if it was hair. Her form broke apart as she pressed her segmented hands against the large pile of metal ores, and it rippled as she sank into its very center.

I could have used her to extract the metal from the ground - it makes sense to use a _metal _elemental to gather metal. I, however, had found it was more convenient to call upon a primary element, such as earth, rather than a specific one. Hell, I could have used her to melt Lady Whosits' weapon and armor, along with the rest of the knights who tried to stop me, I could have used my metal elemental against the guards outside my cell while melting the chains that bound me; freedom would have been an easy feat.

But I was done depending on others, it would have been a fool's task to think that the mentally-shattered elemental of metal could have aided me in any other way. It is a consequence of my own hubris, as they were incapable of any advance instructions - being nothing more than a cheap source to enhance, and reduce the cost, of certain skills - and with most of my skills locked away in the coffin, I no longer had a use for an elemental.

I pointed my outstretched hand to the pile of metal ores, all of them of various types, but none of it mattered. "[Mass Production]."

**[Mass-Production] (Active) Level MAX**

**Monotonous labor is detrimental and mentally taxing, a waste of labor that could be put to better use.**

**This skill allows you to craft multiple copies of the same item with the use of magic if you have provided the materials to do so. **

**Quality of final result is determined by skill level, materials used, and WIS.**

**The cost of MP is determined by the complexity of the item being crafted.**

The skill knew my intentions and highlighted the mountain of various ores my elemental recently resided within.

**System: Please select a recipe.**

"Select recipe: Living Metal."

**System: Warning! Sentient ingredient detected! Using this individual as an ingredient will consume and destroy them in the crafting process! Do you wish to proceed?**

**[Yes/No]?**

I immediately hit yes.

A flash of light blinded me for a mere moment, but I didn't need to see to know what taboo I have committed; using sentient creatures as ingredients, one of the forbidden techniques of blacksmithing as the moral cost was too high while the risk of failure matched the possibility of being filled with despair. To feel a sense of guilt and loss when the item many had spent a fortune and loved ones to make resulted in shoddy quality, there is no greater joke than that.

The light died down, and I saw the notification I expected to see.

**System: Crafting successful! A mountainous amount of Living Metal has been added into your inventory!**

"Finally…!" I choked on my own words. An indescribable ambition I had curiously dreamt of will soon be made real, a personal project I had morbidly pursued in my early days before I met the blonde princess, the sole reason why I gathered so many elementals in the first place. However, spending time with Star, and gaining her trust and friendship made my dark pursuits to be nothing more than a minor task to procrastinate in its completion.

It's a good thing my priorities are now in check.

Then the rain poured.

I felt the droplets evaporate as they came near the evil fire devouring my head. I looked up at the dark sky and felt a sense of wonder as if I am seeing precipitation for the first time. A perspective of childish wonder I never wanted to lose, as I actually managed to _look _at my surroundings.

Alone.

I couldn't describe it any more than that, it all just felt so calming as the thunder roared above.

At this moment I knew that having myself as my own ally would be the best course from now on. I don't need anyone to tell me I can change, I shouldn't listen to people who convince me of pursuing redemption. People don't change - specifically, _I_ don't change! A certain magical princess' progression will only go so far before she regresses back into those naive ways. Just like me.

For the first time in what seemed forever, I've felt so happy - the events of _today _are made me happy. The brutality of my fighting. The slaughter of the people in the kingdom. The march of the undead growing with my victims. Hunting my prey. Bargaining with sentient beings using unknown and ulterior motives.

It was like the good old days, and it all felt so wonderful - at best I could gleefully call it debauchery, and at worse, I would shamefully identify it as depravity - and all I had to do was go back to my old habits. It just felt so comforting, so right!

And it only cost me the healthy condition of my very being.

Clearly, _self-improvement _isn't the answer...perhaps it's _self-destruction._

Suddenly everything became clear.

"...Ember, help me burn the wood! Now!" I shouted as the rain poured harder. Without hesitating, the fire elemental coated the gargantuan pile of uprooted trees in her signature flames. Using [Fly] to position myself above the crackling flames. I pointed to the earth elemental. "Help me contain the flames, I don't want to waste any of the ashes!"

The pile of burning wood dipped into the ground before a thin wall ringed the entire blaze. I pointed my hands down at the fire, it burned far too slow. "[Incinerate]!"

Black fire shot out of my hands, drastically changing the color of the flames and increasing the temperature, making Ember gasp as a darker inferno overtook hers. She just looked at me with a new sense of fear, how I violated her element, and I wonder about the sensation she felt from the soul-burning fire that covers my head as it grows in aggravation and temperature while I called upon its dark power. It's heat making my skull brittle and causing it to form _cracks_.

**System: A Vital area is being damaged!**

I ignored the warning and continued my act, and after an hour the trees of this deadly forest that were full of life had been reduced to dead ashes. It left a huge column of smoke traveling upwards, surrounding me in it. But my lungs had already fallen out, and any debuff I would have received had been negated by the Fortifying Garlic I wore. "Gather the rain!" I shouted at the water elemental, my voice clear in the storm and smoke. "I need more water for this!"

All the droplets I could see froze before darting towards the massive pile of ash, slowly turning it into a black paste resembling ink.

Ink that has been tainted by dark fire.

I reached in my inventory to grab the Living Metal, dumping it out into the black substance below me, one ingot at a time. "Good, keep adding the rain! I need clean water for this!"

Living Metal is a tool for construction. Able to erect support frames for buildings, frames, and parts for vehicles, and repair any metal structure with ease. I fantasized about making a Grey Goo apocalyptic scenario, but this is as far as I could get to the real thing.

It was made with my elemental, who was still bound to me, and in turn, allowed me to control it. That was why it's a tricky thing to make, not to create it, but to control it afterward. I've seen an entire civilization in one of my travels become destroyed by Living Metal running amok, growing monstrous and destructive with each assimilation of metallic goods and buildings.

But for what I have planned is much worse, for everyone else and for me.

I plan for self-destruction.

I want today to be my last day will be my last day.

A day of liberation celebrated by genocide, sadistic sport, and cruel hunger cravings! A day I was honest with myself and realized I didn't want to be good; I've seen my split-personality do so and it was pathetic. If that is what I earn if Star's naive plans of redeeming myself worked, then I do not desire a future like that.

I felt everything he did, and if that is what redemption is, then I do not want it!

I would rather die happy than live miserably.

And there is only one thing that can make me happy - happier than betraying all of my friends, more exuberant than my first murder, and anything combined into an irrepressible flood of glee! The sensation has many descriptions.

Saving the best for last.

Like having well-earned dessert after a nice meal.

Fulfilling an overdue grudge.

No matter how I phrase it, all of it has the same conclusion of me killing Star. So when I do kill her slow and make her bleed, then at the peak of euphoria is when I shall end my own life!

That is how I will go out of this godless world: blissfully. My happy ending. I feverishly imagined the outcome, making me desire it more and more. It made me giddy; soon I will be able to _cut _her.

"It's so close, I can taste it!" I willed the Living Metal to churn and stir, rapidly mixing everything in. I took the two of the holy stakes I have strapped to my forearm, and stabbed each one deep within me; eating away my taint and corruption, the dark fire on my head flared brighter, and I giggled as the agony wrecked my innards! I reached the apex of my laughed when I twisted, and ripped the holy stakes out of my body, letting my tainted blood fly out in a beautiful wave of crimson and letting fall into the dark mixture below.

My laughter died down as I looked at the elementals. Most of the skills I had are locked away in the coffin, and I don't plan on taking them back; someone else will get to use them instead.

I moved over to Ember, [Hydra's Rejuvenescence] fixing the holes I made in my body - couldn't say the same for the cloak; I don't have that skill anymore. "...It's ready-"

"That's it?" Ember _interrupted _me - I wanted to rip someone's fingernails off now - looked at me with skepticism and confusion before glaring. "You just wanted me to burn some trees? You could have done that yourself!"

"Maybe my fire wasn't hot enough, and I just needed yours to get started." I retorted before looking up and the rain. "If I had burned it later, I would have struggled to turn it all to complete ash. It would have taken too long, and I don't have enough time to burn wet trees!"

Before Star came into my life, being unprepared was my worst enemy. From entering dungeons I made with [I.D. Create], to venturing across dimensions on Heckapoo's scissor-quest, to the unpredictable motives of human nature; all it having the common factor of being ill-equipped for the task and costing me deeply each time.

I let my guard down. The thought of Star's plan to rehabilitate me going so horribly wrong always crossed my mind - yet I willingly ignored the warning because I felt so safe around her. Despite all of my sensory skills, my paranoia, my habits of creating contingency plans, I never had to do any of that around her. She is a solid foundation in my unstable life.

I loved her for that.

Now I hate her a hundred times more.

**System: For realizing your mistake of misplacing your security, your WIS has increased by 1!**

Ember's voice snapped me out of my musing. "Then why did you say it's finished?"

"When I said 'It's ready', I wasn't referring to the completion." I clarified, with a subtle growl mixing in my tone. The Living Metal began to rise like bread dough, inflating and deflating in odd intervals as if it were breathing. "I was talking about the _preparation _for the final product - you will have a key role in playing it."

"Me?"

"Yes," I carefully looked at each elemental around us. "You and everyone here."

"A-And then you'll let us go?" She asked, the excitement of freedom undermining her short-tempered personality. "We can all go home?"

"I don't need the elementals anymore," I said truthfully. I would be lying if I said it was comforting having a conversation with Ember one last time; giving her an echo of freedom made her a liability - more of an annoyance really. A mistake I am going to rectify.

Right now.

The tainted Living Metal violently erupted upwards before surging towards us, diverting around me and sweeping away every elemental like a gluttonous tsunami; Ember let out a frightened scream - she tried to get away, but I willed the dark chains to bind her in place.

As the black, metal sludge tainted with my blood surged and spiraled around me, with little pockets of lights shining through from the elementals. One of those lights is a bright orange, bubbling its way to the surface before a familiar fire elemental made her last appearance. "Wait…!" Ember struggled to stay above, covered and struggling to speak as the Living Metal attempted to pull her down. "What are you doing? We had a deal, Marco!"

"We did, and I'm keeping my promise; I didn't lie-" I activated [Mass Production] once more, scrolling down the custom crafting list I prepared over the course of my life. "I'm simply fulfilling what I promised: you and your fellow elementals will never have to work for me ever again - you can't do so if you're all dead!" I pointed out, laughing and laughing as it vibrated throughout my body.

"Marco, you…!" She screamed, and at that disturbing, awe-inspiring moment, I saw the black metallic liquid surged before violently slithering in every hole on her face.

**System: Warning! Multiple sentient ingredients detected! Using these individuals as an ingredient will consume and destroy them in the crafting process! Do you wish to proceed?**

**[Yes/No]?**

I hit yes. Everything was deconstructed and remade in a blinding flash of light and screams, and the light died down for me to see the notification for one of my many ambitions being fulfilled.

**System: Crafting successful! Custom recipe "Universal Devourer" has been created! **

* * *

**A/N: Star's character is something I have trouble writing with. Because in the show, she isn't dumb, she is just naive. She thinks things can work out well, but doesn't factor in all of the variables that can make everything go wrong. And they usually do!**

**Anyways, I wrote a little too much, and the prologue may continue for another chapter after the next one, or not considering I can trim it down. Let me know what you think in the reviews.**


	4. Prologue Part 4: Haunting Past

**A/N: Let me be clear about something before this chapter begins. I wrote this chapter way before the Coronavirus pandemic, I've just been putting this off because I was busy.**

**So let me tell you right now, in this chapter, Marco uses a plague. It wasn't inspired by the pandemic, it's just a coincidence. I honestly felt like I should have rewritten this chapter, but I asked my friend and talked me out of it. He pointed out the fact that Marco in this fic, has done much worse than unleashing a plague. Eating people. Drowning children in mud via their parent's reanimated corpses. And so on. So by comparison, unleashing a plague isn't that bad.**

**Why am I saying this? I don't want to get another PM from someone complaining about this story. The criticism I'm fine with, even if it's harsh and has insults in it, but whining about why and how terrible it is of Marco being evil is where I draw the line.**

**Was the warning in the summary not clear? It's this reason why I want to write an evil Marco, not some version where he is tricked or possessed - or worse when the story says he is evil, but doesn't he doesn't do anything evil! I hate that, and since no one did, I guess I am.**

**So anyways, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Star Butterfly didn't want to fall asleep.

What she saw earlier when she used the All-Seeing Eye was enough to give anyone nightmares, but for Star - who had lived with Marco back on Earth - was more worried than panicked. She wanted to go outside of the sanctuary and find her friend who escaped from his cell. She wanted to know what caused all of the blood she saw in the homes of her people. To do something other than wait!

Yet she knows Marco is out there in the world, and probably isn't too happy that she took his prized coffin. Suddenly, the idea of hiding in the magical sanctuary didn't look like a bad option.

Being exhausted physically after a strenuous journey to the magical sanctuary - as her mother was almost devoured by a carnivorous plant while being strict on using the wand - and after having an emotional moment with her mom as the terror from the magical sanctuary violently shaking came to an end, Star couldn't stop her overworked mind from slowing down while her eyelids become heavy.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, the faint crying from the coffin she took from Marco is disturbingly soothing.

The dreams would be the same, it was always about Marco - specifically the moments in her life when she found out something she wished she didn't.

* * *

_A month ago_

She had to hurry.

Star's silenced steps crept along a secret path throughout the castle. She had arrived in front of a metal door, yet it did little to calm the unease she felt in her body. One of the most dangerous beings in the multiverse resides behind that door, and it's her best friend - the lack of guards and security is sustaining the anxiety that disturbs her soul.

Star stood in front of the door for what seemed like an eternity. The mixture of emotions she is feeling is the very reason why she delayed her visit, and instead procrastinated by indulging in distracting activities with friends. She felt the sadness of how far her friend had fallen, and Star knew she was partly to blame.

Who is she kidding; a lot of what Marco is today is because of what she did in the past.

Yet no matter who Star tells, no one believes her; disregarding her impact on Marco's life, or thinking that her warnings about her friend are a mere exaggeration.

Either they believe Marco isn't a serious threat, despite his horrifying reputation that was later discovered after a thorough investigation throughout the dimensions. Maybe Marco simply killed anyone who was guarding his cell.

Star didn't like any of those scenarios. Although the latter seemed to be proven true, as the trail of dripped blood coming away from the door provided evidence of his bloodlust.

She used her wand to cast a subtle unlocking spell on the door, but found it odd that it was already unlocked; nonetheless, it allowed her to freely enter the dark, stone chamber. The light from her family's heirloom was enough to illuminate the disturbing contents within.

Star's blue eyes went wide when she saw the windowless interior was coated in dried blood. Marco stood at the very end of the room, his standard dark pants and red hood with a white undershirt was clean from the crimson filth painting his cell. The cuffs around his wrists that were connected by a good length of chain was the only restraint that was intact. The rest that was supposed to shackle his legs, waist, and neck, are shattered and broken; scattered on the floor, and coated in dried blood.

Which is why there was nothing stopping him from walking up to her with a contented smile full of warmth; it reminded her of a time where that natural grin was a symbol of sadistic triumph, and later transitioned into one filled with protective, unconditional love directed at her.

"What happened here?" She nearly yelled, trying and failing to keep her voice down to a minimal volume to avoid being caught by her mother again. "Marco, what did you do?"

"That's the first thing you say to me in weeks?" He asked with genuine surprise. "A little cliche, don't you think? Then again, indulging in distractions - like going with your friends to the Bounce Lounge and eating Goblin Dogs - tends to make one forget the harshness of reality."

Star didn't show her disturbance when he said that - it always freaked her out when he said things he couldn't possibly know - and she refused to acknowledge what he said, but could not bring herself to deny it either. With the trouble at home, her kingdom, with politics and news of Monster uprisings, having some free time with old friends seemed like a good idea. Yet she knew that was dangerous thinking: it's how Marco used to tempt her, and she used to do the same to him.

Marco continued to talk. "You know, if you wanted to eat good food and have pleasurable hallucinations, you could have just asked me."

"Don't change the subject, Marco!" Star said sternly, she couldn't afford to be lax. "What happened here?"

"The squires of your knights got too confident when they snuck in here to try and beat me up - some petty attempt of retribution for…" Marco said with a dismissive motion of his hand. "Something. I don't remember the reason - I was having too much fun beating them up!"

"Something?!" She fumed, angered by his lack of guilt. "You crippling Higgs isn't just _something_, Marco!"

"Oh Star," He shook his head with amusement, never losing his grin. "_Crippling_ is a big understatement to describe her condition - _blind, and paralyzed from the neck down_, would be accurate." He then rolled his eyes when he saw the expression on her face. "Oh don't look at me that way; she started it when she verbally provoked me."

"Don't act as if you're the victim, Marco," Star scolded. "You could care less about what people say; you were looking for an excuse!"

"That, and I was really, _really _bored!" He acknowledged, his eyes had a softer look. "You know me so well..."

"Which is why I came here," Star said. "I knew something would be wrong when the squires returned, but they wouldn't say where they got their injuries, and I suspected you had something to do with it!"

"Of course they wouldn't say where they got their injuries; they'd get into some serious trouble! The higher-ups would probably think I _corrupted them with my evilness_~!" He said in a mocking tone, although it wasn't completely untrue. There was some form of corruption. "To be fair, what I did to them was in self-defense," Marco confessed with a casual dismissive flick of his hand. "They came in here with the stolen swords they were supposed to polish, and tried to stab me when I was sitting here in my cell."

"They shouldn't have been able to find this place - it's for the worst criminals deemed by the Magical High Commission," Star argued. "And they shouldn't have been able to open the cell either! Only certain people have the key!"

"One of them being the head chef of your kitchens," Marco revealed, much to her shock. "She received it from the maid after she stole it from your dad's discarded pants on her way to drop off the dirty clothes to the wash. The chef unlocked the door for me to serve me my food - making sure there was enough light pouring in for me to see her _spitting _in it - and she didn't lock the door on her way out, which made it easy for the armed squires to walk in-"

"There are knights positioned near the route to your cell!" Star protested, unable to grasp her good-natured people would do something so horrible. "They're ordered to stop any suspicious behavior: a group of squires with stolen weapons planning to kill you would have been prevented!"

"Which is how they were able to reach this place; your knights let them. Anyways, the squires walked in, closed the door behind them, said some cheesy monologue about friendship and loyalty, and they tried to strike me with the swords. I moved a little, they cut a few of the chains instead of my flesh, I grabbed the sword from the ugly one before I used it to stab the fat one in the genitals, then I used the chain to-"

"I already know their medical status," Star interrupted, trying to hold back a grimace as memories of their condition when she went into the castle's medical wing threaten to make her vomit. They looked like they were mauled by a feral beast, which is not entirely a lie. "Injured I can understand, but why are they _sick_?"

"Star, you're missing the important details," Marco said with minor annoyance. "The chef is _spitting _in my food, and is one out of many accomplices to an _assassination _attempt!"

"Marco!" Star scolded him. "Focus!"

"I didn't kill them," He noted. "Remember, that's a huge step for me Star!"

"There's blood covering the ceiling!" Star reminded, gesturing to the crimson that stains the walls and ceiling. "Do you know what will happen now if people find out? Everything we've worked for your rehabilitation will be for nothing!"

With how inquisitive her mother and the Magical High Commission are with Marco's investigation, they'll use this incident as an opportunity to rightfully condemn him. They'll take her best friend away, and there is nothing she could ever do about it.

Marco didn't look convinced. "Progress can't be wasted if it never existed."

"You did make progress!" Star said, frustration clear in her pleading tone. "You healed the sick and poor, you repaired their homes, you-!

"Only did that for my scheme of sadistic enjoyment." He reminded her. "Hell, the only reason I even bothered doing so was because _you told me to_."

"Well, you had your fun," Star scolded. "But now you have to take this seriously!"

"Oh, I have been serious. I've been serious when the Magical High Commission gave me a pathetic trial without a chance to defend myself when your mother publicly announced that I am an incarnation of evil to your citizens; especially when those squires came in, thinking they can find some sort of justice."

"And they're getting worse by the minute - they caught some sort of illness, and nothing is working and it's starting to spread outside the castle! If you heal them, if you save help Mewni, you could work out some sort of deal-!"

"Then what?" He interrupted with harsh disdain. "Be chained down, forever treated like something less than a person as everyone spits in my food, trying to beat me up, all the while you're goofing off until someone is in danger and it is out of your control to fix? I'd rather die!"

Star ignored the verbal jab. "You _are _going to die! They're considering executing you instead of crystal imprisonment!"

"I'm hoping they will!" Marco said with a smile. "I have something special planned when I die: a final joke so deadly it will bring a cataclysm!"

"How could you think that way? If people would hear you, then everyone would think you're a lost cause!"

"Why should I care if they do? I'll be dead; you can't punish a corpse! That's what makes it fun!"

"That is what makes it cruel!" Star protested, her voice then became soft and sad as she saw Marco showed no shred of remorse. "...You would rather do all of that, then help others?"

"Yep!" Marco said without hesitation, and even though Star has a deep understanding of his mentality, he still manages to surprise her every now and then, and it hurts even more. "But also remember what we agreed to when we discussed my stay here on Mewni: I said that I would _cure _your people, I never anything about making them _immune_."

"Will you drop the cryptic act already!" Star snapped. "I should have known that even when you mess up, you still try to be clever!"

"I could say the same thing about you," Marco countered, a note of hostility in his voice that made her tense. "The only reason your mother even began investigating me was because you aroused her suspicion, and only made it worse when you tried to hinder her investigation; her title_ Moon the Undaunted_ isn't just for show." His grin returned. "Oh, and to clarify; I _am _clever."

"Clever as you _think _you are."

"Still more clever than most people, I can only count on one hand people can match me in wits, and she is standing in front of me." He pointed at her. "Unlike most, I learned from my mistakes - like watching what I say when behind a closed door. Yet I am one of the few who can apply it. Just like how, for example, I was _aware _of your mother standing outside your door that night when we had our talk."

"That doesn't make any sense: if you're_ so clever_, then why didn't you stop talking if you notice my mom outside my door listening in on our conversation? All of this could have been avoided if you watched what you said…!" Her fierce retort died out when she had a moment of clarity.

Then there was silence. Star felt her skin crawl with goosebumps, a frightening chill creeping up her arms and gathered to tighten her chest; her breathing became strained as her heart felt like it would explode.

She couldn't go through all of this again, and despite the familiar and minor euphoria she feels, the last time she endured this was too horrible.

"You knew she was outside my door…" Star's voice was a frightened whisper. "You knew she was listening to our conversation that night..."

"That's right," Marco gave her a slow nod of acknowledgment before letting out a nostalgic sigh. He looked at her with eyes filled with yearning, and his voice sounded soft like a parent encouraging a child. "You would always put the clues together, just like before."

"You could have stopped our conversation, but you didn't… you made sure my mom heard everything...you _wanted _this to happen!"

The small grin on his face grew bigger.

"You planned all of this, didn't you…" Star's accusation sounded like a statement, much to her horror. Past experiences are a cruel source of wisdom; subtle hints became mind-blowing revelations that resulted in death, tragedy, and entertainment for her friend. "From the very beginning…!"

Her worst fears were confirmed when Marco's grin turned into a face-splitting smile. The same smile that showed sadistic triumph that foreshadowed an unpredictable outcome with a high mortality rate. "From the very beginning?" Marco repeated mockingly with a snicker, taking a step forward. "Oh Star, my plans are elaborate, but they are not _that _complicated-"

"Stay back!" Star pointed her wand at her friend. "You're not leaving your cell!"

"I was just going to give you a hug to comfort you," Marco held up his hands in mock surrender, even taking a step back to the end of his bloodied cell. Star saw, for a moment, a look of pain on Marco's face when she didn't lower her wand, but it was quickly buried under his dark humor. "But don't worry about me leaving. In fact, I plan to stay right here, in this cell, and let the chaos unfold."

"You're not trying to escape?" Star didn't know if she wanted an answer, it usually turns out to be something much worse; fear causing her to unconsciously take a step back while still aiming the wand at her friend. "...Then what are you planning, Marco?"

Marco still held up his hands in mock surrender, and it did nothing to ease her fears as his smile unsettled her. "I simply took the opportunity to accelerate the inevitable, because an outcome on my terms increases the odds of success." He elaborated, yet it only raised more questions than answers. Marco easily saw the confusion on her frightened face and continued, "Eventually, my true nature would be discovered by your parents - most likely your mother since your kingdom is a matriarchy, and she is the one who puts in the most effort of keeping it safe - and I would be locked up and treated as the _freak _I am."

"This seems premature," Star said. "How could you possibly know that my mother would have discovered anything about you?"

It was once again Marco saw another example of Star's naivety. While they have left Earth behind, and never visited certain dimensions ever again, it didn't completely erase the evidence of what he did there.

"I may have locked most of my espionage skills away in the coffin, but I can still eavesdrop," He countered. "Your mother wasn't exactly keeping it a secret when trying to find out more about me, about my past, about the awful things that I've done... and considering you've only increased her suspicion of me with your horrible attempts to divert her attention away from her investigation; it only motivated her to try harder."

"How long have you been planning this?" Star demanded, the light from her family's heirloom glowing brighter as her voice rose in volume. "Did you even want to be rehabilitated?"

"I was honestly conflicted," Marco said honestly with a shrug. "I thought this whole thing was naive, a waste of time, and would end horribly… but you were so excited to help, and put in so much effort! I couldn't bring myself to destroy all of that… until I got bored and lashed out at Higgs when she said… well, I honestly can't remember _what _she said, but it was a good enough excuse!"

"Then why are you bringing others into this?" Star felt a lot of painful emotions at that moment, her breathing starting to quicken. Her thoughts went back to the brutally injured squires becoming sicker by the second. "Why are other people getting hurt? This is between you and us; there is no reason for you to drag others into this!"

"Or it could be because of the squires who tried to kill me, who were assisted by the chef who is spitting in my eggs! Seriously, do you become deaf while my voice becomes mute when I say that?"

"Marco, what did you do? I know you have something planned, you always do! People get hurt, and you laugh it off as if it's a joke!"

"Of course I have something planned," He acknowledged with a nod. "But I'm simply fulfilling a promise we made to each other… and getting a good laugh out of it while I'm at it."

"What promise?"

"THAT promise," Marco emphasized. "The one you made to me when we were at the lowest point in our lives, the same promise you broke by leaving me here to rot in the dungeons."

Whatever resolve Star had, it started to falter. An emotional reminder of her regrets, and her most enjoyable moments in life. "I didn't leave you..."

"Then why did you take so long to visit?" Marco accused. "You have the wand, and you have a pair of dimensional scissors, and when you finally visit, it's only because I hurt someone, and the first thing you do is to make me do the very things that make me miserable? This is why I started this plan when the squires came in to try and take my life. Honestly, I was expecting you to be the one to slit my throat in my sleep; it's been a while since you've made an effort to kill me."

Marco couldn't believe the uncomfortable look on Star's face. "Oh come on, murder - of all things - gets you squeamish now?!"

"It's…"

"It's not like you're a stranger to it! What about that time we went to the ice cream dimension and ate all the babies? We discovered flavors that were indescribably delicious!" He reminded her with joy, although his smile dimmed when he saw that she didn't express the same happiness. He brought up another example. "What about the time you secretly took me here to Mewni to go on an adventure, and instead we terrorized the local populace? You were so cunning that they didn't even know you were there! I would have done the same too if I wasn't having too much fun!" Although, he could admit that he should have worn a better disguise than a paper bag over his head.

"That was a different time: I was sick and thought I was going to die, and spent the time I had left the wrong way!" Star's face then showed remorse. "...and I _stupidly _dragged you into it, just like I always do."

"As if that's supposed to change what we promised? Because even after I cured you, no matter what, when one of us got into serious trouble, we dropped everything - and I mean _everything _\- to save each other! I've been stuck in here, being thrown jeers and insults when I am let outside, being fed tainted food and had attempts on my life. And what do you do? You leave to goof off." He can still smell the aroma of sweets from her breath, and the fragrance of entertainment coming from her sweat.

"Marco, you are romanticizing what we did; we were awful to each other! It was more like our egos wouldn't allow no one but ourselves to hurt each other, trying to outdo each other, and people got hurt!

He always hated it when she deflected his accusations. "You didn't seem to care at the time, last I checked you said what we were doing was _merely cathartic_, and you said, I quote, 'If we're terrible people, at least we're terrible together'." Marco reminded, and knew he hit home when he saw her visibly flinch. "May I also remind you that _I _was the one on the receiving end the majority of the time: you're the reason why I don't sleep anymore!"

Star winced at that reminder, looking away in shame, but with a faint blush on her cheeks. A large part of her regrets what she did, and she never forgets the repulsive feeling in her gut… but she would be lying if she said that she didn't enjoy every second of it.

Marco became disappointed. "You're feeling guilty now, of all times? You used to be proud of that. You would say it was one of the many things we have in common; sadistic creativity." He let out a sad sigh as his arms slacked to his sides and said in a quiet voice, "What happened to you? What happened to my blonde psychopath?"

"_She _changed because she realized what she was doing was wrong," Star emphasized. "It's why _she _stopped doing those things to you in your sleep!" Star tried to change the conversation, to get it back on track, but even after all this time Marco somehow takes charge.

"Then why did it take you so long to stop sadistically-molesting me in my sleep? I had to ward off my room for weeks after I discovered what you did to me in my bed." Although because of her causing him paranoia, Marco was able to discover that [Gamer's Body] prevents him from needing to rest, eat, and any biological necessities; the amount of time he utilized instead of sleeping and eating was beneficial beyond description.

"I wouldn't call it molestation…"

"No, I'd call it torture porn." Marco countered, feeling the phantom pains of the reminder. "Especially since you would come into my room - naked - and then do things that would kill a lesser man." Marco always wondered why his [Physical Resistance] skill leveled up so much that it evolved in his sleep, along with [Poison Resistance] and many other protective skills as his CON stat grew.

"...Why are you bringing this up, Marco?"

"It has to do with your earlier question: why am I doing all of this? If your mother and the Magical High Commission had discovered the awful things I did, then they'll become horrified of the atrocities we did together… and some of the really fucked up things you've done yourself."

The color drained from Star's face, her eyes widening in terror. Guilt bubbling up to the surface of her mind as she starts to tremble. The faintest hints of tears start to form in her eyes. Her relationship with her mother is shaky enough as it is: if she were to find out what her daughter has done...

"Don't worry, you were very thorough in covering your tracks, and what you didn't conceal, I did." Marco's hands on her shoulders caused a mixed reaction of relief and terror. Relief, because it was always a welcoming touch that would always calm her fears. Terror, because she didn't see him approach her and wasn't aware that she lowered her wand. "They will be too focused on me, and how biased and hateful they are towards me, no one - especially your mother - will know what you've done. As far as they know, you are simply the rebellious princess who had the noble and foolish goal of trying to rehabilitate someone evil… well, they're half right on that."

"You're doing all of this to protect me?"

He nodded. "Just like we promised to do," The smile on his face was gentle and kind, he spoke in a tone akin to comforting a frightened puppy while he used his thumb to brush off a tear Star didn't know she had shed.

Star closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and removed Marco's hands before exhaling and taking a step back. She can't fall for his charms, not anymore. "I believe you when you say you did this for me," She opened her eyes to give her friend a glare. "But why are the squires getting sick? Why drag them into this if this is between you and me?"

"Why are you hyperactive and imaginative? It's simply in your nature." His smile became the familiar cruel grin that she knew. "Doing good doesn't make me _feel _good, it makes me miserable and tired, and I feel owed for some of my own personal entertainment. As for the squires getting sick..." Marco reached into his inventory and pulled out a diseased ridden sphere of blackness and blotches of green. "I just rubbed a little bit of this on them."

**(Pandemic Slime [Mythical])**

**A rare breed of gluttonous slime that only eats dead organic matter. These slimes have evolved to digest most biological contaminants without being affected by developing a god-like immunity to weaponize against other predators. This slime has been fed an excessive amount of biohazardous material, combining and mutating the various harmful ailments into extremely detrimental results.**

Star was disturbed by the sight of the creature and felt anger aimed at Marco. "You said you got rid of your dangerous stuff from your inventory! That was part of the deal you agreed to when you came here!"

"No, I said I would leave behind my _weapons_: I never said anything about _utility items_." Or armor, masks, and trinkets. "When I cured your sick citizens, I didn't make the disease go away, I just transferred it to this amazing little guy!"

Star took a step back as the Pandemic Slime rippled from Marco's praise; various things so disgusting and painful bubbled within its contagious form, splitting apart and violently colliding against one another until something horribly infectious was born. The process repeated a dozen times over within mere heartbeats.

Marco chuckled. "Oh don't look so scared, it's not airborne; it can only be spread through physical contact and fluids... but considering medicine knowledge here is more magic-based than actual physiological practice, it's going to be a very long time before they figure that out."

"Then why aren't you affected?"

"My body works differently," He reminded her as he easily returned his Pandemic Slime back into his inventory. "A disease is merely a debuff; a negative status effect that my high CON pretty much negates. I can't say the same for your people though… not even you, your family, or the rest of the kingdoms here on Mewni. The squires may orchestrate this assassination attempt for avenging Higgs, but your knights and castle staff contributed to this of their own free will - not under anyone's authority but their own loyalty - it's a wonderful motivator!" He exclaimed with glee.

"No one is that loyal," Star said, and Marco wanted to scoff and remind her that a living example is standing in front of her. "I admit they serve my family with vigor, but they're not fanatics! You targeted a knight's squire: it's personal, and it is not something they're going to casually forget."

"I know they won't - it's why I chose to infect the squires instead of the kitchen staff!" It would have been so easy to smear the infectious slime on his dinner tray when the castle staff came to get it. "Knights have a personal bond with their squires, and they have stations all across Mewni! They're concerned about them - which guarantees that they will be close to them, becoming infected too, along with those who treated them - and after they're done making sure they'll be fine, they will later go back to their posts across the land."

"And spread the disease across the world..." The dawning horror that Star felt earlier returned a hundred times more.

"All the while I sit here, in the most isolated cell in Butterfly Castle!" He laughed, clapping as Star had come to the right conclusion; it always entertained him. "As I said earlier, I plan to stay in my cell. And if the Magical High Commission crystallizes me, I'll be safer by being far away from here! If I'm dead? It'll be hilarious as something much worse will kill them all! Either way, I get what I want!"

"B-But you can't-!" Star choked out, her mind overwhelmed by what she discovered. Star then imagined someone sick infected the kingdom's water supply, or fell into the ocean where the aquatic citizens of the Waterfolk Kingdom live. Would the disease spread that deep in the water? Would it infect animals and plants, like birds and corn? It was these uncommon moments that Star would curse her imagination. "You can't do this, everyone on Mewni could die!"

"I know - isn't it great?!" He shouted with fanatical joy. "Imagine the amount of XP and dice I'll get from this! Don't worry, I'll share like I always do. But I do feel obligated to take a bigger cut - how does a 70-30 split sound?" He offered with genuine kindness as if the lives of people and their suffering was nothing more than a passing thought. "And no Star, I'm getting the 70 - I don't want another misunderstanding like last time."

"I don't want any more dice!" Star shouted. "And you're not going to any either because your plan won't work if I cure them myself!"

"If you could do that, you and your family wouldn't need me!" He countered with a giggle as if this lethal plan was merely a pleasurable conversation. "They would have - _should _have - done the smart thing and invested in your training so they wouldn't need me to escort me from my cell from time to time to heal the sick and fix what is broken! Yet you don't seize the opportunity to learn healing magic yourself, because you still believe that I can change, despite me saying how _miserable _it makes me!"

"That's the reason why I'm trying to change that! People always get hurt, but you are taking it too far now!"

"That's what makes it fun! It's why I'm even telling you all of this: there is nothing more entertaining than watching someone commit a sadistic choice! I want to see what you care about. Do you choose me - the only true friend who had never lied to you, who embraced the dark and repulsive side of you that everyone would reject, saved your life on multiple occasions while helping you overcome your own shortcomings? Or your family and your kingdom - who raised you with unconditional love and security, making you feel important as they need you while defending and avenging you becomes like a second nature for them?"

"Why would I pick you, over the innocent lives that are about to die from a horrible disease?!" Star shouted. "And why would I even need to make a _decision _in deciding which? I hardly see the 'sadistic choice' in all of this - my mom will do something, she always finds a way to protect the kingdom! She doesn't need you!"

"Oh yes she will; that will be the best part! It comes later! The diseases from the Pandemic Slime mutates too fast, and has a long incubation period! Even if your mother manages to make progress, it will only be a temporary victory! Oh, the look on her face - I wish I could see it! - but there is another option, one that you have to make: you can convince your mother and the Magical High Commission to pardon me in exchange to rid the world of this potential epidemic, and then you will have to look directly in your mother's eyes, and _lie _to her about how you don't know anything I just told you."

"You're going to cure the plague you've unleashed? But you are just fixing the problems you caused in the first place!"

"It won't look that way to everyone else if you don't tell them about the plague's origins~." He said in a sing-a-long tune.

"I'm not going to lie to my mother while people are dying!"

"If you _don't _tell her, your people will be cured, and I earn some favor to be redeemed in the eyes of society. I get my freedom, your rehabilitation attempts can continue, yet except this time you'll learn from this and make some much-needed adjustments so this can never repeat. It'll probably work so well, I actually _might _change!"

Marco's eyes had a darker nature to them, one she had seen many times before. "But if you _do _tell her, then it will be a good reason for her and the Magical High Commission to crystalize me! Guaranteeing that the plague will never be cured, and will kill everyone! There is even the possibility of executing me - because I would rather die than be forced to cure the plague - and unleashing something cataclysmic: everyone on Mewni dies slowly and screaming for the pain to end! It'll be hilarious!"

"...that's not going to happen," Star whispered as she pointed her wand at her friend once more, glowing with ferocity equivalent to an erupting volcano. Aiming her wand at his head, taking a step back. "None of that is going to happen - I'm not going to play your games, and I will make sure everyone survives, and you will stay in your cell! I will make sure there is no way for you to get out!"

"Well~ that's the problem," He took a step towards her as she once again walked away in equal measure. Something Marco kept track of. "You have been taking a _lot _of steps back, enough to be near the _heavy metal door_ of my cell." Marco then spread his arms wide, straightening the bloodied chain connecting the cuffs on his wrists. "And I have a weapon."

He wrapped the chain around Star's wrist before violently jerking it. Her wrist was snapped clean, and she screamed; her wand clattering onto the bloodstained floor. Her knees gave away, the only thing holding her up was Marco's metal vice on her broken wrist.

With her upper body at an acceptable level, and with one of her arms raised and restricted, it made it easy for his foot to swiftly connected to her face just as he simultaneously unwrapped the chain, kicking her in an angle, that as a result, her head collided with his cell's door before falling onto her back.

The echoing of the collision was like a church bell with a dull ring, with a morbid origin of its sound. All of it happening within mere seconds; efficiently done by a man recalling upon past experience of brutality so abundant that it was practically muscle memory.

The blood from Star's broken nose added to the crimson mess in the room.

Marco grabbed Star's family heirloom and placed it into his inventory. He walked past the dazed princess, whimpering and bleeding on the ground, before stopping as he barely had his foot out the door.

He walked back, an impulsive idea in his mind as he stood over her as she laid on her back in pure agony. She managed to focus her blurry, watery vision in time to see Marco raise his foot...

"Agh-!"

...and then drove his foot straight down into her stomach.

All the air Star rasped was easily exhaled, feeling a warm and painful sensation in her stomach that made her head injury worse; something ruptured and caused internal bleeding.

"Don't worry," Marco bent down, gently stroked her head, and whispered in her ear as she struggled to breathe. "I don't plan on leaving; I'm just going outside on my terms, and I will not be doing my usual involuntary acts of healing and repairing homes… I'm going to take a _bite_ out of someone before I come back. Children flesh is so soft."

The Princess, who's struggled to breathe turned into pained whimpers - a sound Marco grew to love - as she shook her head, silently begging him to stop.

Marco gave her a warm smile. "Oh Star..."

* * *

A panicked voice called out to her.

"Star!" The urgent person shook her. "Star, wake up! Now!"

Star's eyes shot open as she heard a loud boom, and the ground under her shook. "M-Mom?"

"We need to go, now!" Moon helped her daughter to her feet, the walls and ceiling of the building cracking, letting the rain and swamp water in - the fractures expanding as if they were being evaporated as hellish blue light poured in. "The sanctuary is-!"

The ancient structure crumbled with a deafening explosion of blue light so fierce that they had to shield their eyes from its illumination. When the light's hue wasn't so blinding, Star saw that her mother had her in an embrace to shield her from the unknown. Swamp water flooded up to their knees from below, and the rain poured onto their heads from above. The inactive Magical High Commission still in their pods, and the coffin, were buoyant.

"Are you alright?" Moon inspected her daughter with worry.

"I-I'm fine," Star said. "But what was that light?"

Their eyes went wide when they saw the ancient masonry in unequal chunks being carried away by some invisible force, slowly becoming smaller and smaller as if the light that stole them was acidic. The remnants were being traveled away, like a stream of sand in a blue sky in the night, guided by large concentric rings of dark metal into the top of a grand spherical device in the sky.

Hovering in front of the device was a skeletal beast in a yellow cloak covered in odd trinkets, wearing a grinning mask of crooked teeth with its head engulfed in a dark flame. Star saw this creature when she used the All-Seeing Eye spell, and it failed to invoke what she is feeling when she is seeing the monster in person.

Towering.

Imposing.

Nightmare-made material.

It flew towards them at a steady pace. "About time that wall came down!" The unsettling voice it had was soothing and deep, yet silently promised pain for the slightest provocation. "And you…!" It turned its attention towards them, specifically the princess as she had the urge to move while being paralyzed with fear. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't be able to find you, Star? Do I have to break your wrists, kick your head, and stomp on your stomach _again _to stop you from taking what's mine?!"

Star immediately knew who this creature was and whispered so quietly that no one but her could hear, "Marco…?"

"Star," Moon grabbed her hand as the levitating monster approached them, motherly instinct overriding terror as she is determined to protect her child. "You need to run. When it approaches, you run for the shore - I'll keep it distracted."

"Or," The monster called, clearly able to hear them despite the downpour, coming closer to the water. "I could just ignore you, and go after her instead."

"You are not going to hurt my daughter!" The Queen stood in front of the Princess. "I will die before that happens!"

"I was going to do that anyway, although the order of the events will differ depending on what happens, Moon." The threat was said in a bored tone that it sent a chill up her spine that was unmatched by the rain. The fact that the monster called her by her name didn't help either.

"Mom, stop," Star urgently grabbed her mother's arm before she would continue; Moon didn't keep her scorn for Marco a secret, and he would only be angered even more. "Too many people have been hurt, just let me talk to him. I can reason with him, just like I did before."

"Reason?" Moon looked at her confusingly. How would her daughter know a frightening entity, and have the confidence to converse with a beast? Star marched past her before she could question her further, wand in hand, the water sloshing around as she advanced. "Wait, Star-!"

"Let's just talk!" She called out to her friend and tried to hide her discomfort with his form; living in the same house with him for months trained her well. "Please."

"We are far beyond diplomacy after that stunt you pulled!" The fire engulfing his skull flared a color so dark, yet it was so bright. The rain evaporates before reaching the flame, and Star could feel the heat radiating hatefully. "I'm not going to fall for your fake promises anymore Star! I'm done!"

"Just let me explain..." Star pleaded, but her words died out as she realized how she practically feels the hatred emitting from his body, and how he is fighting the urge to murder her on the spot; only his sadistic desire to kill her slowly is why she is able to talk. It all felt so suffocating. "M-Marco, please!"

"Marco?" Moon repeated in disbelief, she marched in front of her daughter despite her protests and then demanded, "How did you escape? The knights should have stopped you!"

"They _tried_ to stop me, and in turn, I chopped off their heads." He replied bluntly, no dramatic flair, no sadistic laughter of what he did, just pure professional malice; retelling slaughter was now an obstacle - despite being minor and insignificant - to stall him from murdering his friend. That is what scared Star the most. "But the first two guarding my cell?" He pointed his skeletal hands at them, dark fire coiling and flaring. "I did this!"

Marco's [Incinerate] skill unleashed a wave of cruel flames at Star and Moon.

* * *

**A/N: I've been playing video games - one of them is Iratus, Lord of the Dead. It's like Darkest Dungeon, which I am a huge fan of, but you play the role of the monsters; dealing physical AND stress damage against heroes who want to slay your dark master, causing them to either go insane or become inspired. It gave me ideas. Also, I went back to rewatch season one of SVTFOE. Man, it was nostalgic, and I later found out browsing on the internet some lore that would have made the show darker if it ever went on air.**

**Another thing as I was planning the rest of the story, I realized something huge! A major plot hole bigger than the Grand Canyon, and I had to rework a lot of things.**

**And I had a bit of difficulty making this chapter. I wanted to portray just how toxic Star and Marco's relationship was before, and when I wrote the first draft, I wasn't satisfied. Also, the scene wasn't complete, it's in fact much longer, but I had to cut it short because it just got out of hand, too long, and my god was it hard to keep track of the dialogue!**

**So I cut it, scrapped the rest, and will sprinkle hints of how that confrontation came to an end. Don't expect much, because we know how it ends: Star convinces Marco to let her use magic on him.**

**The next chapter is the final of the prologue.**

**Let me know what I can improve on in the reviews.**


End file.
